Universities face dangers identical to those of other employers, but with fewer controls and resources compared to other employers of comparable size. For example, in comparison to industry:

• Pre-employment and pre-adminssion criminal background checks are less common
• A larger proportion of the population is in the high-risk age groups for violence and substance abuse
• Open campus environments permitting free access to visitors are more common
• Residential facilities are more common

These and other factors make it even more important that inappropriate behavior be recognized, reported, and addressed appropriately, which are core features of TAG’s approach.

TAG has assited in the management of high-risk cases for colleges and universities, both to prevent violence and in connection with post-event litigation. In TAG’s traditional role of helping manage threats in progress, TAG has provided consultation to Columbia Teachers College, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, Johnson & Wales University, and others. Examples of the kinds of events for which universities have consulted TAG include:

• Guidance on the termination of a print shop employee who physically assaulted a coworker, causing serious injuries
• Guidance on the management of a post-doctoral fellow seemingly obsessed with a faculty member
• Investigation of anonymous hate mail arising from a student in an intense, personal course
• Guidance to a female professor who was being threatened and stalked by a female student
• Guidance on the management of a librarian who made inappropriate comments about shooting people
• Guidance on the management of an unemployed alumnus who made references to the Columbine shooting at a reunion and during sessions with a university career counselor
• Guidance on the management of a student terminated from his work-study program who threatened his supervisor and said he admired Timothy McVeigh

TAG experts have served as consultants to attorneys on matters arising from threats and violence on college and university campuses, including institutions as diverse as these examples: Johns Hopkins University, San Diego State University, Case Western Reserve University, Montana State University, California Polytechnic State University, and the North Orange County Community College District. TAG experts have provided litigation consultation to district attorneys and U.S. Attorneys prosecuting offenders for murders, shooting incidents, or bombings on the campuses of Simon’s Rock College (multiple victim shooting by student): the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (attempted mass murder by student); Vanderbilt University (bombing); University of Michigan (bombing); University of Illinois at Chicago (bomb); University of Utah (bomb); University of California, San Fransisco (bombing); Northwestern University (bombing); Yale University (bombing); California State University, Fullerton (mass murder by janitor); and the University of California, Berkeley (bombing).

Examples of some additional matters with which we have experience but which are not a matter of public record include these:

• A transient on a private college campus killed one woman and seriously wounded another
• A professor was seen by staff with a handgun in his office; an employee sued for emotional distress, also claiming he had made sexually harassing comments and discriminated against her on religious grounds
• Two students were assaulted on a university parking lot; one sustained brain damage
• A resident advisor raped a student, gaining access with his keys to the women’s dormitories
• A female student was date raped by another student in an on-campus residence
• A student made a false allegation of rape in a dormitory room
• A graduate student and her visiting sister were murdered by another graduate student
• A college security guard was suspected of murdering a female student in her car on a college parking lot
• Lawyers representing 17 developmentally disabled children alleged the children were sexually abused while attending a school operated by a university

TAG experts have conducted research on offensive behavior in colleges and universities and have been invited speakers at meetings of the National Association of College & University Attorneys and the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.