When to Contact the Care Team
The Care Team may be the right place to turn if you are concerned about an individual on campus.
You may be concerned about an individual's behavior. The behavior may not necessarily be threatening to others, but it may seem unusual or indicate that the individual needs help. Behaviors that may be cause for concern include:
- Personality changes
- Changes in behavior
- Lack of engagement or missing classes more often than in the past
- Aggression
- Extreme sadness
- Self-injury or cutting
- Suggestions of self-harm
- Signs of an eating disorder
- Poor hygiene
- Persistent disruptive or inappropriate behavior in residence halls, off campus, in classes, clubs or organizations
- Unhealthy drug or alcohol use
How the Care Team Can Help
The Care Team can also provide support for:
- Overwhelming sadness or feelings of loneliness
- A death in your family, personal life or college community
- Divorce
- Uncertainty about attending SUNY Poly or considering taking a break from college
- An unexpected illness affecting you or someone you care about
- Unexpected life changes that may affect your college experience
Submit a Care Team Referral
You can reach out if you or someone else is experiencing changes or challenges and needs support. The Care Team can provide discreet and private assistance.
Students, friends, family members, faculty and staff who are concerned about a student or themselves may submit a Care Team referral.
Report Concerning or Threatening Behavior
The Care Team is also trained in violence and threat assessment. We encourage members of the campus community to report concerning behavior as early as possible. Early reporting can help the University assess concerns, provide appropriate support and help maintain a safe campus environment.
Please report behaviors such as:
- Threatening words or actions toward faculty, students or staff
- Social media posts, online journals or other online content that contain threats or demonstrate violent behavior
- Online posts or writing that describe plans or intentions to commit violence against others
- Suggestions of an attack made in person, online, in written submissions or discovered in personal notes
- Uncharacteristic or extreme aggression toward others
- Projects or papers that convey a clear intention to harm oneself or others
- Observed self-injurious behavior, including burns or cuts
- Suicidal thoughts or behaviors, including threats, gestures, statements of intent or known suicide attempts
- Relationship violence
- Stalking
- Aggressive acts toward an identified group
- Possession of weapons or an unusual fixation on fire, firearms, bombs, ammunition or other weaponry
- Paranoia or delusional behavior
- Flat affect or an extreme lack of responsiveness
- Excessive class absenteeism
- Uncharacteristically poor academic performance
- Extreme or dangerous substance use
Our Approach
The Care Team is not a punitive arm of SUNY Polytechnic Institute. Our goal is to help students succeed academically and personally while supporting the safety and well-being of students, faculty and staff.
We work with individuals who submit reports to understand the level of concern, evaluate the situation and determine an appropriate and supportive response.
The Care Team also works in partnership with offices across the University. When appropriate, information may be shared with University Police, Community Standards or other departments so they can respond according to established University policies and procedures, including the SUNY Polytechnic Institute Student Code of Personal Conduct.
All offices that work with the Care Team follow their established procedures and responsibilities when intervention or additional support is appropriate.
