Dear Colleagues,

This is the fourth in a series of notes offering a shared grounding in the operations of the School. The goal of these notes is to make sure all community members are aware of the resources available to help us all succeed and thrive. This is the final note from me in this series, next will be a message from Dean Ira Lazic on benefits for staff and faculty.

Today’s note deals with what we hope to not have happen—bad things. Sometimes bad things do happen, and it helps us all to be prepared for them, and as a School it is our responsibility to provide support, resources, and resolutions to the greatest extent possible. We are fortunate to work within a university with extensive resources dedicated to ensuring our safety. To my mind, key information is as follows below.  I realize here I am mixing “very bad things” with “mildly bad things”, but I thought it was helpful to have all this information in one place.

First, because this is really what happens most frequently, incidents in the classroom may occur, and as we note during Orientation, we have pathways for students to bring such matters to the School’s attention. If such occurs, we encourage students to first talk to the course instructor. If that does not work, please reach out to our Assistant Dean of Students, Mary Murphy-Phillips at mcmurph@bu.edu or at 617-358-1750. If needed, as a next step, the Associate Dean of Education, Lisa Sullivan at lsull@bu.edu, will be informed, and finally Dean Sandro Galea.

Now, moving on to other emergencies and challenges.

  1. For any event related to public safety or medical emergency, Boston University Police Department/Public Safety can be reached at 617-358-4444. If anything is critical, please call 911, but also call our own police department at this number.
  2. For anything related to facilities, e.g., infrastructure breakdowns or hazardous spills, we can call 617-358-4144. In addition, Michael Koehler is our Director of Facilities and Building Operations and is available for any non-urgent facilities-related contact, accessible at mkoehler@bu.edu or at 617-358-8370.
  3. For minor health issues, for On-Campus Students, Student Health Services is located at 881 Commonwealth Ave and reachable by phone at 617-353-3575. For employees, Occupational Health is located at 930 Commonwealth Ave, #1200 and reachable by phone at 617-353-6630.
  4. The Sexual Assault Response & Prevention Center (SARP) provides free-of-charge counseling and advocacy to Boston University students who have experienced a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, dating violence, and other types of interpersonal violence. They can be reached at 617-353-SARP (7277), and are located at 930 Commonwealth Avenue. SARP also hosts office hours on the MED Campus during the academic year (as does Behavioral Medicine).
  5. For any concern that can benefit from impartial discussion, the Ombuds office is an independent, impartial, informal problem-solving resource for all faculty and students. The Office of the Ombuds is located in the Solomon Carter Fuller Building at 85 East Newton Street, Suite 818 and may be reached at 617-358-7645 or via email at ombuds@bu.edu.
  6. For concerns related to discrimination on the basis of sex, including sexual misconduct on university campuses the Title IX Office ensures compliance with the Title IX Education Amendment. Our Associate Dean for Administration, Ira Lazic is the Title IX coordinator for BU SPH. She may be reached at iralazic@bu.edu. Additionally, anyone (students, faculty, staff) can fill out an incident report form to address any Title IX-related concerns. Further, any of the Title IX team members at the University level may also be contacted directly.
  7. For concerns about unlawful discrimination and harassment against students, staff or faculty, our Equal Opportunity Office oversees the implementation of Boston University’s Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Policy. Our Associate Dean for Administration, Ira Lazic, is our EOO Coordinator for SPH and may also be reached at iralazic@bu.edu to address any equal opportunity-related concerns.

Finally, to keep handy, much more is available at bu.edu/emergency or via the QR code below:

Emergency QR Code

Note that there are different contact numbers for the Charles River Campus for much of the above, but we are here communicating for our SPH community, and providing contacts relevant to our community primarily.

I also realize that emergency contacts and protocols never quite address all eventualities.  Should you have any questions on any of this, please reach out to our Associate Dean for Administration and Finance, Ira Lazic at iralazic@bu.edu or at 617-358-3220, who is our key point of contact for all matters related to safety.

Now, having said all this, it is my hope always that we need to have no recourse to any of this, ever.  But of course, as I note at the outset, bad things do happen and our goal always is to make sure we protect all members of our community, to resolve concerns quickly, so all can continue to thrive and work towards our shared mission. Thank you to everyone who makes that all possible, every day.

Warmly,

Sandro

Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH
Dean, Robert A Knox Professor

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