WESTFIELD – Chief of University Police, Tony Casciano, and Dean of Students, Maggie Balch, urge students to report any concerning behavior at the Student Government Association Meeting on November 4th to promote campus safety.
A majority of 11/4s’ meeting was devoted to the Student Threat Assessment Team (STAT). This interdepartmental board evaluates potentially threatening student behavior on campus and intervenes as needed before it escalates.
“If it’s an emergency, call university police; if it’s not an emergency, I encourage you to complete and submit a report form,” Balch said.
Since students spend so much time together, Balch and Casciano urge every student to learn how to report concerning behavior by submitting a report form on the Westfield State website.
“It is up to members of the SGA and the general student body to remain vigilant and report any behaviors of concern to the team to ensure that Westfield State campus is safe and welcoming to all,” said Ethan Haynes, New Hall Representative and 2-term SGA Parliamentarian.
The student body is being made aware of the use of STAT to understand the critical role each can play in keeping themselves and their community as safe as possible. “Intervention begins when a potential case is identified. Most information gets to the team via a “submit a report” report,” Balch said. “If a risk is identified, this team is available to review and determine next steps with the goal to avoid a major incident that disrupts the health and safety of the community.”
Cassandra Rudd, the Assistant Director of the Counseling Center and the Counseling Center representative for STAT, appreciates how STAT can provide consistent, equitable support for every student’s needs through standardized questions and the use of multiple perspectives among the many team members.
“By having team members from various departments on campus, we are able to get different viewpoints and opinions on a situation, which is definitely helpful in having a fair process. We also utilize a standardized rubric with specific questions and classification charts to determine the level of the potential threat,” Rudd said.
Balch explained that the creation of systems like STAT resulted from channels of communication not crossing, which meant students could not receive the resources they needed.
“Everyone knew pieces of things that were happening on campus, so the counseling center knew something, the university police knew something, a biology faculty member knew something, the roommate knew something, and none of them were talking to each other,” Balch said.
Chief Casciano confirmed with all the students in attendance that they had RAVE and RAVE Guardian, the university’s emergency notification system.
Westfield’s criminal activity is publicly reported on the University Police page of the university’s website. This page includes resources for students and published crime logs, the most recent of which was published in October.
The published crime logs list incidents on campus involving students and members of the Westfield State community, ranging from liquor law violations to stolen motor vehicles.
Every month so far in 2025 has seen at least one criminal activity logged, with violations of liquor laws among the most common, totaling almost 20 in the past year.
Balch and Casciano close out their informational session by imploring students in the Student Government Association to sign up for emergency notifications and not to hesitate to submit a report.
