STRENGTHENING THE ECOSYSTEM OF CARE AND RESILIENCE: A BASIC QUALITATIVE STUDY OF THE EXPERIENCES OF THOSE WHO LEAD THREAT ASSESSMENT TEAMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Threat assessment teams (TATs) are multidisciplinary teams that mitigate risk and enhance campus safety to ultimately prevent crisis. Although campus safety concerns are not a new phenomenon, the physical and mental safety of faculty, staff, and students can affect how they work and learn. TAT leaders guide and support a critical component of care and resilience for campus communities. This basic qualitative study examines the experiences of TAT leaders, specifically to understand how they describe and operationalize success. Through document analysis and nine semi-structured interviews, the following themes were created: Establishing and Maintaining Norms, Acquiring and Leveraging Resources, Recognizing the Human Element, and Commitment to Protecting Campus. Bolman and Deal’s organizational model framed the study. The four frames—structural, human resource, political, and symbolic—serve as the lenses through which teams navigate threats in innovative and effective ways. Findings reveal that TAT leaders used all four frames to balance process, people, and politics. By understanding the experiences of TAT leaders—specifically how they describe and operationalize success—this research can inform institutional policy and procedures and potentially motivate the people doing this work. The findings offer valuable insights that can assist leaders and other stakeholders as they strive to elevate threat assessment and case management at institutions of higher education.