Office of the Registrar

Dear OSU community members,

The university is launching a new Community Wellness, Education & Safety Network for the Corvallis campus to better coordinate and holistically provide existing and new crisis prevention, mental health, public safety services and response, and other support services.

Like communities across the nation, our community and university leaders are focusing collective attention and dialogue on the fact that wellness and public safety are often experienced differently by those who hold marginalized identities, including Black, Indigenous and other People of Color (BIPOC). This much-needed attention is occurring as OSU transitions Corvallis campus law enforcement from a contract with the Oregon State Police to a university-delivered program.

Development of the new public safety program has included valuable input from many community stakeholders, including students, faculty and staff members, who have clearly stated the university needs to rethink how it serves student wellness and safety. The Community Wellness, Education & Safety Network is in response to that feedback.

The network will consist of three program components: community health and crisis response; public safety and security services; and community relations, education and outreach. It will provide:

• Strong collaboration among university department such as the Office of the Dean of Students, Counseling and Psychological Services, Student Health Services, the Department of Public Safety, including the university’s police department, the Office of Institutional Diversity, and others.
• The addition of new personnel, who have appropriate training, credentials, and experience to develop and provide crisis response programs and services.
• An emphasis on educational and community engagement programming, while on-campus public safety and licensed law enforcement programs will work closely in coordination.
• Additional staff resources within the Division of Student Affairs to provide after hours on-call student mental health crisis response services and personnel.
• Close alignment with existing university teams, such as the student care team, threat assessment team and bias response team.
• Service to Corvallis university students on and off-campus. Student-centric and trauma-informed response services will take into account the unique nature of each student and each situation or crisis and respond with care and appropriate resources. For example, the network will be a critical resource in facilitating the university’s response to matters such as welfare checks, non-violent conflict resolution and substance abuse crises, and providing support for mental health crises.
• Inclusion of campus law enforcement, which will enable effective situational assessment and response to matters that have the potential to involve or develop into active violence or criminal activity.

The university also cares about the health and well-being of its employees. As part of OSU’s Culture of Care, we have introduced a new employee assistance program called Beyond Benefits. Here is link to that program. Areas of service include family needs, financial needs, mental and emotional support, and legal needs.

The university also is joining the city of Corvallis, Benton County and other community partners in on-going discussions regarding collaboration, community needs and areas of possible expansion of wellness and crisis response services that may provide new support to community members experiencing mental health crisis.

In the coming weeks, we will provide additional information on opportunities for students, faculty and staff to learn more about the network; contribute ideas to its development, as well as finalizing position descriptions for new student-serving crisis response personnel. In the meantime, please visit the new Community Wellness, Education & Safety Network website for more information.

Sincerely,

Michael J. Green                                                               Dan Larson
Vice President for Finance and Administration                 Vice Provost for Student Affairs

Chief Financial Officer                             

Office of the Vice President

Division of Finance and Administration

Oregon State University

640 Kerr Administration Building

Corvallis, OR 97331

Ph: 541-737-2447