New ‘one-stop shop’ for safety, maintenance, Equal Opportunity and other concerns
The SafeUND webpage helps users understand and navigate the process of reporting a non-emergency concern
The concern could be as small as a campus sidewalk that hasn’t been cleared of snow, or as big as a case of sexual misconduct.
Regardless of its size, if a concern is such that a UND student or employee would like to bring it to UND’s attention, the University now has a “one-stop shop” webpage for that purpose.
The new SafeUND | University of North Dakota webpage was created as a resource for the UND community regarding misconduct or safety concerns, said Donna Smith, UND’s Assistant Vice President for Equal Opportunity and Title IX.
The comprehensive page explains how to report a non-emergency concern about behavior or property, access resources and services, and understand UND’s response to misconduct and safety concerns.
User-friendly
Buttons on the page are labeled “How do I report?” “Where do I get help?” and “How does UND respond?” Each button takes users to easy-to-use sources of additional information, as well as the proper forms for reporting safety problems, maintenance issues, crime, harassment or other issues.
“Our goal was to create one place where people could go to report different types of concerns,” Smith said.
“It can be anything from a small maintenance or safety issue to a behavioral issue or violence.
“What we were worried about is if people had a concern but didn’t know where to report it, they’d either not report it at all or perhaps search for a few minutes, and give up.
“Then we wouldn’t hear about it, and we’d never get the chance to address the issue.”
Moreover, the new page serves an informational as well as a reporting purpose, as mentioned above. Today, “If people are trying to decide about reporting something like sexual misconduct, they can go to the new web page and learn about what support is available for them,” Smith said.
“In addition, they’ll get an answer to their question, ‘How does UND respond to different types of reports?’ That should help them make a better-informed decision about how to proceed.”
The new page makes the above information more easily accessible than ever before, Smith said. That’s vital, she said, because “It shouldn’t be difficult. For people who have experienced some kind of concern, it shouldn’t be difficult for them to figure out where to go for help.”
A collaborative effort
The page is a collaborative effort that pulls together information from UND’s offices of Equal Opportunity & Title IX, Student Rights & Responsibilities, Safety, Facilities, Human Resources and Housing, as well as the University Police Department. “And if there are other offices that would like their information to be posted as well, we’d be happy to include them,” Smith said.
The page also features a generic “Share a concern” button, along with an invitation for users to click it if they’re “not sure where to go, whom to ask or what to do with a concern.”
The goal is to make the page as user-friendly as possible, including for people whose concern may not seem to fit the existing categories, Smith said.
“We don’t want people to put this off because they’re not sure which form to fill out,” she said.
“That ‘Share a concern’ button takes users to a report that gets received by a couple of different people. And if they’re not in the right department to handle the concern, they’ll make sure it gets to the right people. It’s a good catch-all.”
The new webpage has been up and running for just a few weeks, Smith said.
If people are confused or intimidated by UND’s services, then “as much time as we spend trying to get those services right, we can’t help people,” Smith said.
The new webpage is tailor-made for just that purpose: to help UND students and employees who have a concern figure out what to do next.
