FACULTY & STAFF

Two students moving into a residence hall

At DPrep Safety, we assembled a team of master trainers who provide high-quality, effective virtual and in-person trainings at a reasonable price point. They bring decades of subject matter expertise in diversity, equity and inclusion, legal reviews, counseling, law enforcement, conduct/discipline, and human resources.

Our first question to a new community partner is always, “Help us understand your unique needs and what resources we can bring to support, train and advise your community.” At DPrep Safety, we prioritize our quality expert systems, training, and consulting reviews over profit margins. Our services are built to bring our community partners lasting change, rather than a one-and-done engagement.

For more information or to schedule any of these options, please contact bethany@dprep.com.

Apply trauma-informed strategies to manage behaviors and maintain productive classrooms
Evaluate when and how to engage polarizing topics to support respectful classroom dialogue
Design and communicate clear expectations and boundaries that foster inclusive classrooms

In this online course, our expert team offers insights and guidance on classroom management, navigating challenging conversations, and setting expectations in the classroom. In a conversational style, with engaging visuals and timely examples, we provide essential guidance and support to those teaching in higher education. Whether you are new to teaching or seeking an authentic, practical, and experienced approach to boundaries, classroom management, and building a classroom community, this series is for you.

This four-part program includes:

Should I Talk about This? – How, when, and if you might talk about polarizing topics in the classroom
A Trauma-Informed Approach to Classroom Management – Practical direction on responding to difficult student questions
Engaging and Managing Classroom Environments – Addressing conflict in both the online and in-person teaching settings
Boundary Setting in the Classroom – Setting expectations in the syllabus and during the first class

Drawing on more than a dozen theories, including crisis de-escalation, crucial conversations, emotional intelligence, professionalism, boundaries, transtheoretical change theory, and motivational interviewing, our instructors will help you develop and improve your teaching and classroom management skills. Learn how issues of power, privilege, gender, race, and ethnicity impact our teaching approaches and how we are seen as teachers, instructors, adjuncts, and professors by the administration and our students.

From direct lecture style to entertaining and provocative video clips and images, the presenters engage the audience by demonstrating the techniques we are teaching. We discuss the use of stories, humor, and personal reflections alongside research-based rubrics to guide discussions and grading. We talk to you as colleagues and peers, sharing real advice from difficult experiences and mistakes we have made in our teaching careers. The most effective thing we can do as educators is to be grounded in learning opportunities, whether more formally in the syllabus or in what students bring to our attention.

From the authors of:

A Staff Guide to Addressing Disruptive and Dangerous Behavior
A Faculty Guide to Disruptive and Dangerous Behavior in the Classroom
How to Engage in Difficult Conversations on Identity, Race, and Politics in Higher Education

Learn more about…

How to set up a classroom for success by engaging in conversations with the students during that first class
The “minority tax” for faculty of color when working with students
Challenges related to professional dress as it differs for women of color and other professors
The pros and cons of bringing intense and emotional issues into the classroom space, such as those related to reproductive rights and abortion, immigration, politics, and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict
How to address student behavior with an awareness of their prior trauma experiences and worldview
Characteristics that instructors should be aware of that increase the risk of boundary crossings and violations with students
How to keep students from pushing your buttons or “getting your goat” when it comes to intense personal conversations
How to approach limit setting around technology use and the use of AI
How to keep perfection from becoming the enemy of the good
When it makes sense to own a mistake while teaching and apologize for it
How to set limits and expectations related to clothing, language, background screens, and camera usage during online classes
The things that trigger us as instructors, such as talk about weapon ownership, immigration, political division, or military conflicts.
How to teach students the ability to hold and explore multiple perspectives
How to catch yourself before saying or sharing an intense opinion or reflection that isn’t appropriate
The importance of identifying (in your mind) your favorite students and those who are more difficult to work with to maintain professional boundaries.
Understand masking as it relates to neurodiversity and autistic students in your classes
When and if a handshake, hug, fist bump, or other touch is appropriate between a student and professor
Understanding the unique challenges faced by female professors in addressing challenges in the classroom related to misogyny and being vulnerable with personal stories
How observable and hidden disabilities may present in your classroom and knowing the importance of how to refer and work with students who present with an accommodation need
How to start classes by making use of the teachable opportunities when we encounter conflict
Why it is important to explain the reason behind the rules you have regarding classroom behavior and expectations
The importance of talking with your class beforehand about what may or may not be talked about in class to better assess their readiness and be able to orient them toward your class experience
How to adopt a balanced approach to teaching that addresses multiple learning styles
Understanding the meaning and the morality we attach to students related to their appearance, dress, language, mannerisms, and goals
Helping students better understand the importance of deciphering the rules and expectations for each different professor they have
The role of grace and mercy in the classroom as tools of the instructor
The importance of addressing students by their name and preferred pronouns, using the correct spelling and pronunciation

How to avoid escalation by saying things like…

“If you don’t study well enough for this class, you are going to end up flipping burgers for the rest of your life.”
“The character you wrote for your fiction essay is unrealistic and shouldn’t have been what you chose for a main character,” to a student writing about a black trans, autistic man with PTSD, traits the student shares.
“Students have a responsibility to talk with me first before filing a complaint against me.”
“No matter what, I don’t talk to a student’s parents. It’s not why I’m here.”
“I don’t know who you are talking to when you ask me to miss the final because you have a vacation scheduled, but I’m sure it isn’t your professor.”
“These Gen Zers and millennials are really the problem in today’s society. No one is willing to work and get things done.”

How to respond to comments and questions like…

“I hate it when the libs try to come for my guns. If I want an AR-15, it's my right to have one.”
“My grandmother died, and I can’t be at the final,” from a student who has used this excuse twice before.
“When have to do assignments during class, I don’t have the same access to my academic support and counselors who can help me with accommodations. Can we stop doing in-class writing assignments as frequently?”
Following a recent school shooting where the attacker was suggested to be autistic, a student shares, “I don’t know why they let these kinds of people out. Everyone knows they are dangerous.”
“What expectations should we have from you as a faculty member?”
A favorite student asks, “The school is suspending me, and I don’t have any place to stay. Can I stay at your house for a day or two until I get this sorted out?”

Explain conduct processes, code sections, and due process to support fair case management.
Apply investigation, interviewing, and documentation strategies using trauma-informed approaches.
Evaluate resolution options, sanctions, and supports to manage conduct cases effectively.

This online series is an innovative way to train a new conduct officers, as a refresher for experienced conduct professionals, and training for those on BIT/CARE teams and faculty/staff who want to learn more about student conduct. The course offers a certification upon completion of a brief assessment at the end of the training.

Participants receive six hours of course instruction, supplemental handouts, case studies and other resources.

Understanding the Code & Preliminary Review

Understanding the code
- Philosophy and sections of the code and types of misconduct
- Overview of the conduct process & understanding due process
- Incident reports and sources of reports
Preliminary review
- Initial information gathering and understanding gatekeeping – what is conduct?
- BIT and conduct; conduct and Title IX; BIT and law enforcement
- Assigning allegations & conduct case components, jurisdiction

The First Meeting & Investigations/Interviews

First meeting
- Remote vs. in-person
- Building rapport and outlining the process
- Student rights and responsibilities and review of supportive measures
Investigation/Interviews
- Strategies for investigations and interviews
- Questioning techniques and bias awareness/cultural awareness
- Trauma-informed practices & documentation techniques

Decision Making & Hearing Practices

Resolution options
- Conflict resolution, formal hearings, and composition of the hearing panel
- Administrative hearing panel, panel pool, and appeals panel
Recording and administrative process

Sanctions and Support

Supporting the reporting and responding parties
Understanding interim actions (VRA, suspension, no-contact)
Sanctions review and application
Appeals process
Files and records

Develop a toolkit for crisis de-escalation, issues with residents, and working with community partners
Learn how to build a community with your resident advisors and set up supervision that works
Be prepared for supervision challenges and difficulties your RAs will face

D-Prep is excited to offer a three-part series on the topic of Practical Leadership Skills in Residential Life. Each 90-minute course is aimed at residential life hall directors, training, and orientation staff to ensure they have quality access to the latest research, guidance, and advice from our subject matter experts.

Why It is Needed. After listening to several of our community partners, we confirmed that many schools across the country are facing experienced staff shortages in resident director positions. This means hiring staff with less experience, often with bachelor’s rather than master’s degrees, and placing an increasing demand on their leadership skills in management, supervision, crisis counseling, mental illness awareness and administrative and educational programming abilities.

Part I: Building the Toolkit

We review the importance of the residential life program and how it is vital, now more than ever, in student retention, academic progress, social growth, mental and physical disability support, crisis de-escalation, student conduct, BIT/CARE referrals, supervision, RA development, documentation, and community building. Few positions on campus have such a wide and deep set of job duties and this session offers practical advice and guidance on how to balance these responsibilities, grow a team and ensure your own mental and physical health stays on track.

An overview of the full range of responsibilities residential life leadership staff must undertake
The importance of being prepared before the skills are needed (referrals, forms, documentation)
Keeping your cool: A practical guide to crisis de-escalation skills
Working with community partners
Understanding stress reactions and burnout prevention from the start

Part II: Building Community and Supervising the Staff

Building a community is no easy task. We discuss how building a community for your resident advisors becomes a parallel process for helping them build their own community. Drawing from Poppy Fitch and Brian Van Brunt’s book Leading Across Generations, the presenters share with you some practice advice about building a community and how to set up supervision with your staff in a way that works.

Importance of community building
Themed housing, counselor-in-residence
From throwing FISH! and moving cheese
Myers Briggs and Gallup Strength Finder
Choosing your approach to supervision

Part III: Building Readiness to Respond to Supervision Challenges

There is a saying: every ship at the bottom of the ocean had a map. Sometimes, the best laid plans don’t go as planned. We review how to approach seven difficult scenarios that come up for resident directors and residential life leadership staff. The presenters draw from concepts introduced in previous courses and discuss the importance of addressing problems early and often, what is required for good documentation, and review ten common RA challenges.

Early addressing of behavior and consistent meetings
Identifying common RA problems: overachieving/committed, need for constant praise, checked out of the job, home problems impacting work performance, argumentative and contrary, lacking inertia and initiative, strong start/bad follow through, boundary problems, and overzealous rule enforcement.
Developing performance improvement plans
Having hard conversations and termination
Clear documentation

Develop the skills to work with dangerous and disruptive residents
Learn how to work with residents with difficult personalities and frustrating conversation styles
Address the common challenges when working iwth residents experiencing mental illness symptoms

We offer a blended model of training with Dr. Brian Van Brunt to train your residential life staff in key crisis de-escalation and working with residents with mental illness.

The training series includes:

An on-site training day that would address the topics listed below in 75-minute segments throughout the day.
Access for all RA/RDs to five of the RA/RD courses listed on the Training Outpost website. Completion updates and a final report would be provided to the administrator.
One 75-minute zoom training from the D-Prep team (topic TBD based on your institution’s needs).

In-Person Training Courses

Addressing Disruptive and Dangerous Behavior: This workshop offers research-based, practical advice for residence staff to better manage crisis scenarios that develop related to irritability, financial stress, mental illness emergencies, and relationship difficulties. The course draws from the fields of psychology and law enforcement, teaching techniques including motivational interviewing, rapport building, content-process focus, and knowledge of hooks and barbs. There will be a focus on microaggressions, cultural competency, and GLBTQ+ inclusivity.

Navigating Frustrating Conversations with Residents: This course provides some down to earth and practical ideas on how to avoid getting caught in conversation traps, becoming flustered, and being less effective in conversations. We will offer research-based, practical advice for residence staff to effectively navigate conversations with residents with difficult personalities and frustrating conversation styles and help shape clear and consistent conversational approaches. The course will help staff identify triggers and common conversational traps where they become stuck and offer innovative approaches to engage individuals and set clear boundaries.

Managing Mental Illness: This workshop will offer practical guidance on the topics of managing mental illness concerns related to suicide and trauma in the community and/or schools. We will address common challenges when working with students and community members who experience severe, pervasive, and persistent mental illness and understanding the range of referral and treatment from outpatient therapy to inpatient treatment.

Helping Suicidal Community Members: There is a very long path between identifying a suicidal risk with an individual and making sure they become connected to counseling services. This workshop will review the importance of looking for signs and symptoms of suicidal behavior and understanding how best to help them access services. Particular attention will be given to treatment resistant individuals (e.g., those who do not wish to attend counseling) and groups that historically have underutilized services (e.g., LGBTQ+, African Americans). The use of practical case examples and role playing will be incorporated.

Training Outpost Online Courses

These can be viewed in detail at www.trainingoutpost.com

Understanding Residents with OCD
Understanding Residents with Eating Disorders
Understanding Residents with Depression
Understanding Residents with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Understanding Residents with Anxiety Disorder
Understanding Residents with ADD/ADHD
Understanding Residents with Thought Disorders
Addressing Residents with Substance Addiction
The Hospitalization Process for Housing Staff
Crisis De-Escalation for Housing Staff
Navigating Frustrating Conversations with Residents

Targeted workshops for faculty and frontline staff, including residence life
Apply de-escalation strategies to manage challenging behavior and reduce conflict
Implement practical strategies to address challenges and support safe and respectful environments

Addressing Disruptive and Dangerous Behavior

This workshop offers research-based, practical advice for faculty and staff to better manage crisis scenarios that develop related to irritability, financial stress, mental illness emergencies, relationship difficulties, and other stressors. Instruction draws from the fields of psychology and law enforcement, teaching techniques including motivational interviewing, rapport building, and content-process focus.

Assessing Social Media, Email, and Student Writing

Drawing on his book, An Educator's Guide to Assessing Threats in Student Writing, Dr. Brian Van Brunt will teach participants what to look for when reviewing written and video content that may appear on social media, in email, or in creative writing assignments.

Crisis De-Escalation

Drawing on Dr. Brian Van Brunt’s work in his books A Faculty Guide to Disruptive and Dangerous Behavior and A Staff Guide to Addressing Disruptive and Dangerous Behavior on Campus, this training will explore the difference between disruptive and dangerous behavior in and outside the classroom. The training will cover how to de-escalate a crisis when it occurs and the importance of sharing this information forward with your BIT/CARE team.

Feeling Threatened vs. Being Threatened

This course training helps the participants navigate the challenges presented by faculty and other community members and how talk with faculty, staff, parents, students, and the general community about threats (while staying within the limits of information privacy).

Understand the difference between feeling threatened and being threatened.
Identify transient versus substantive threats using evidence-based criteria.
Balance safety and free speech while maintaining due process.
Apply strategies to reduce overreaction and bias in threat response.

Gender Expression: Understanding Pronouns in the Classroom and Workplace

This workshop focuses on learning terminology related to gender identity and exploring other perspectives and worldviews on gender. Whether you are new to these ideas or want to learn more, we have a place for you in our classes. This training is not about shame, blame, forced change, demanded acceptance, or agreement. Our workshops have been designed to foster engagement and promote connection, belonging, and safety for all groups of people.

Having the Hard Conversations

This workshop will review a wide range of challenging topics that are being addressed in our society, including political divides, mask and vaccine mandates, social justice movements, defund the police, abortion, antisemitism, and LGBTQI+ rights. We will offer a structured approach to engaging with these topics, with an eye toward civility, respect, and principled debate. The conversational approach identifies hotspots for escalations, prioritizes interactive exercises and learning activities, and avoids name-calling and other objectification.

Helping Suicidal Community Members

There is a very long path between identifying a suicidal risk with an individual and making sure they become connected to counseling services. This workshop will review the importance of looking for signs and symptoms of suicidal behavior and understanding how best to help them access services. Particular attention will be given to treatment-resistant individuals (e.g., those who do not wish to attend counseling) and groups that historically have underutilized services (e.g., LGBTQ+, African Americans). Practical case examples and role-playing will be incorporated.

Impact vs Intent: Understanding Microaggressions and Bias

This workshop will provide an opportunity to better understand microaggressions, the unconscious manifestations of privilege that contain the potential to impact marginalized groups further negatively, using examples related to gender, culture, race/ethnicity, mental health, generational differences, physical disability, and sexual orientation. We will provide a process for addressing microaggressions, along with a discussion of good/bad apologies, how to avoid the perfection problem, intent vs. impact, bias, and cultural humility.

Managing Mental Illness

This workshop will offer practical guidance on the topics of managing mental illness concerns related to suicide and trauma in the community and/or schools. We will address common challenges when working with students and community members who experience severe, pervasive, and persistent mental illness and understanding the range of referral and treatment from outpatient therapy to inpatient treatment.

Identify signs of acute distress or mental health crisis in students.
Apply de-escalation and crisis communication strategies safely.
Understand when and how to activate emergency protocols.
Strengthen coordination between schools and community resources.

Situational Awareness

Attending to potential safety and security concerns in the community and schools is the best way to get out ahead of violence, crime, assault, threat, and danger. This practical and engaging workshop brings the principles of situational awareness into the hands of student leadership and residential life staff. This program teaches life skills that are applicable to college and beyond.

Working with Neurodivergent Students

Addresses the intersection of mental health, trauma, and neurodivergence. Faculty and staff will learn inclusive strategies for managing challenging behaviors, supporting self-regulation, and creating environments that reduce the risk of escalation.