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The Faculty Support Team

The University of Maryland, College Park (“University”) supports and protects our faculty’s academic freedom and speech rights. We encourage faculty to engage in public discourse, public engagement, and outreach activities related to their professional, scholarly, and instructional expertise. It is our faculty’s creativity, innovation, and leadership that help us reimagine learning, address humanity’s grand challenges, advance the public good, and invest in people and communities as we move Fearlessly Forward.

In the pursuit of their University-related activities, faculty members may face threats, harassment, disinformation, defamation, and other forms of attacks via social media, e-mail, in person interactions, or other intimidating tactics. We recognize that these acts can make faculty members feel unsafe while performing their duties.   

Goals

Led by the Office of Faculty Affairs and the Dean of Students Office, the Faculty Support Team (“FST”) supports faculty members who have been the subject of threats, harassment, or intimidation as they seek to safely fulfill their faculty duties. More specifically, the FST’s goals are to:

  • Support the well-being of our faculty members.
  • Work with unit level leadership, administrators, and/or groups as appropriate to the situation.
  • Seek to develop strategies and supports for the faculty member(s) and administrators as appropriate to the situation.
  • Identify institutional resources that may be available to the faculty member(s) and administrators as appropriate to the situation.
  • Coordinate with other University and unit offices, as well as administrators (e.g., chair, director, program directors, and dean’s offices) as appropriate to the situation so as to provide as holistic a support structure as possible.
  • Make referrals to other offices (e.g., Student Conduct, the Office of Integrity and Responsible Conduct) as may be warranted.
  • Follow up with the affected faculty member(s) and administrator(s) to stay informed about any new developments and/or additional concerns.

Membership

The FST is composed of individuals from the following University offices:

  • ADVANCE;
  • Bias Incident Support Services (BISS);
  • Center for Leadership & Organizational Change (CLOC);
  • Dean of Students Office (DSO)
  • Faculty and Staff Assistance Program (FSAP);
  • Office of Civil Rights and Sexual Misconduct (OCRSM);
  • Office of Faculty Affairs (OFA);
  • Office of General Counsel (OGC);
  • The Teaching and Learning Transformation Center (TLTC);
  • The University of Maryland Ombuds Services (Faculty Ombuds); and,
  • The University of Maryland Police Department (UMPD).

How the FST Works

When a referral is received, members of the FST will reach out to the faculty member to understand their needs, offer well-being and healing strategies, and suggest ways to address the situation. The FST may also work with the faculty member’s academic units to provide guidance and help further address any safety concerns.  

The FST is not a replacement for UMPD, the Behavioral Evaluation and Threat Assessment (“BETA”) Team, or other University offices tasked with mitigating threats and ensuring the safety of members of our University community. Faculty members who think that they or others are in immediate danger should call UMPD at 911, #3333 (from a Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile cell phone), or 301-405-3333.