Statement on Effective Institutional Responses to Threats of Violence and Violent Acts Against Minoritized and Marginalized Faculty and Graduate Students

Conference on College Composition and Communication
November 2019

The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) is an organization committed to inclusive, equitable, and sustaining learning environments; our classrooms, departments, and campuses should strive to be spaces that nurture our professional growth and that make it possible for students and teachers to do their best work. The CCCC continuously strives to fulfill the goals and values of our mission statement to support “the agency, power, and potential of diverse communicators inside and outside of postsecondary classrooms.”

In cases where minoritized and marginalized teacher-scholars are threatened, harassed, or adversely targeted based on their linguistic, religious, gender, and/ or racial characteristics, inhibiting the fulfillment of their professional responsibilities, CCCC affirms that academic institutions have a responsibility to protect and support minoritized and marginalized faculty.

Protection and support of minoritized and marginalized faculty may be offered in the following ways:

Public statements from institutional leadership on incidents of harassment, hostility, and violence. Such statements should acknowledge the incident and provide evidence-based reassurances of how the incident is being handled.
Plans for the safety and security of the targeted individual, including but not limited to campus police or security escort when on campus, providing on-site security for classes, and other work-related functions
Provisions for compensated time or alternative methods of fulfilling faculty professional responsibilities until the affected individual is able to return safely to their workplace
- Arrangements to meet responsibilities for teaching assignments (for example, short-term or long-term online course instruction or coverage of class meetings), including distance technology options for mentoring and advising of undergraduate and graduate students, where applicable
- Fiscal resources to ensure the individual is able to fulfill their expectations for research and publication, as appropriate, in order to meet the contractual obligations of the position, as well as desired levels of participation in professional activities
- Options for completing or reassigning service and governance responsibilities, whether elected or appointed, including securing alternate representation
- Documented support for either the continuation of administrative work, temporary release or reassignment of administrative work, or permanent release or reassignment of administrative work, as is appropriate to the individual case.
When relevant, the extension of time on the faculty member’s tenure and promotion clock
Fiscal and logistical resources for the targeted individual to access counseling and mental health care, including health care professionals outside of the university

Institutions also can look to and adapt their short-term and long-term leave policies for faculty who experience emergency and/or crisis situations in relation to threats of violence and violent acts against marginalized faculty. Likewise, institutions should ensure that any strategies for accommodating the affected faculty member’s workload do not disproportionately affect other potentially vulnerable faculty members.

These best practices reflect the principles outlined in the following organizational documents:

This position statement may be printed, copied, and disseminated without permission from NCTE.