Students of Concern Committee supports students in distress

Binghamton University’s Students of Concern Committee (SOC) excels at supporting students in times of distress. In fact, the committee, which reviews complex situations and works to reduce negative impacts on students, dealt with 293 student cases in the fall 2021/spring 2022 academic year — its highest number to date.

Brian Rose, vice president for student affairs, said the work the committee does is extraordinary on multiple levels. “First, the SOC deals almost exclusively with our most challenged students, so every interaction is stressful,” he said. “To do that every day, and more than just from 9 to 5 Monday through Friday, is a very challenging task.

“Secondly, the outcomes are remarkable as most of these students manage to stay enrolled,” he said. “Finally, the committee is a terrific example of the benefits of coordinating interventions for students across multiple offices. I’m grateful there is such a team.”

In a letter to the SOC, President Harvey Stenger echoed Rose’s statements: “Because of your efforts, [these students] have been able to successfully navigate the personal and social challenges that threaten to derail their educational careers and might lead them to harm themselves or others,” he wrote. “The Students of Concern Committee members are the quiet heroes of our campus.”

The SOC, composed of representatives from more than a dozen offices on campus, meets weekly during the academic year to discuss individual students who have been brought to the committee’s attention through faculty and staff referrals, police reports, hospital transports and residential life issues.

“It takes a team effort and the SOC is the reason why these students are getting the support they need,” said Colleen Rozelle, assistant director of Binghamton University’s CARE Team, which provides support, care and advocacy for students in need.

Of the 293 cases the SOC addressed in the past year, 268 individual students were supported due to multiple cases for some students. The SOC helps students with a wide variety of concerns from academic stress, to chronic physical and mental health conditions, college transitions and interpersonal conflicts.

Rozelle noted that the middle of semesters tend to be the busiest times for the committee. “We are seeing the most incidents in the fall in October (39) and also in the spring the peak is in March (52),” she said. Another aspect of the cases the SOC is seeing, Rozelle added, is that they are increasingly more complex and of higher severity. “We classify cases into three levels of severity,” she said. “We’re now seeing 54% of cases at a high level, 27% medium and 18% low.”

Even so, 84% of students who came before the SOC in fall 2021, and 86% who came before it in spring 2022, successfully completed their semesters, with the remaining students withdrawing.

“We are seeing similar numbers now of how many students completed the semester as we did pre-COVID,” said Rozelle, “and retention rates are similar as well.”

The SOC supports all students, undergraduate and graduate, on campus and off. The breakdown among undergraduate and graduate students, on and off-campus students and gender are very reflective of the overall campus population.

“The level of support provided can vary, but this shows that there have been multiple offices offering support to many of these students,” she added. “In one case, a student utilized 10 different offices, and another student utilized 13 offices over four months. Both of these students were also threat assessment cases.”

“This is an amazing model of collaboration and cooperation to share across other domains in the University,” Rose said. “Getting all of the different places and people across the campus to share and strategize together is key. You’ve overcome all of those barriers and have for a long time. It’s good to see the success, but also good to preach the value of working across office lines.

“I’m grateful, but also quite proud of your efforts,” Rose said.