I’ll just quickly comment on the <unintelligible> on Saturday. You know, we can always learn from how we respond to things and go back, analyze and see how we can do better… That’s our, always our… continuous improvement is our, is always the goal. So I’m sure we’ll be analyzing more in the coming days, We didn’t have that much time. I was out of the country, came back this weekend, but sure we’ll have the chance, the opportunity to look at this.
I just want to say a couple of things. Safety and security are extremely important to all of us. Our trustees, myself, my leadership team and all of you, and those of you who have a – I want to make sure I look good, since you are recording – it’s always important to all of us, we take it very seriously, our, this job. You probably have seen me, if you’ve watched me for the last 6, 7, 8 years, how important it is for me, and important to our team. So thank you for that.
Also, sometimes, these days, media reports a lot of different things, and sometimes not everything is true. I would ask you that, in case that, something we hear, that we don’t trust something, or you’re not sure, reach out to us. And sometimes it may get delayed, how we respond to something, for some reason, but please reach out to us and we will answer your question. Because hopefully we will have a fact for you. But not relying on outside media. I know that (there’s) a lot of misinformation out there. Including, I heard that we share information with the federal agencies, that’s not the case at all, we don’t share anything, It’s Washington law. It’s not our policy. We don’t do anything to cooperate when the agencies are here on campus, and that’s the Washington law. We have our own policy, so we fully abide by that, so just to make sure that if you’re hearing that we share information with them about our students thats’s not the case. We don’t. We cannot, and we don’t, and we will not.
But safety and security, always important, we try and find new ways to improve our safety for campus and we have taken a lot of steps in the last many years. This is… some things we can do, some things we cannot do, but the bottom line is we always care about our campus, our community, always be a priority.
That aside, I want to <unintelligible> to just give the insight as to how we make decisions, not about this case but what goes into when something happens on campus or anything, and we have done so for the last 6 or 7 years, just high level how we made a decision.
KAREN MAGARELLI
So, generally speaking, and this happened all through COVID and any time we experience anything that is novel, is that we rely significantly on official word, laws, guidance, like during COVID it was through snohomish county health district, that information was vital before we would make any sort of decisions. In any sort of additional novel situation, we will always look to understand what has occurred, where is that information coming from, is it factual? We don’t make decisions based on guesses or presumptions. It’s important for us to be able to root anything that we say or do in fact. Because if you don’t, that is where rumors happen. That is where people start to guess. That is where uncertainty occurs and where anxiety also builds. So any time we do make a decision about something, it is rooted in a fact. And we go through that process, and we have many conversations and many meetings, lots of reviews of documents and things that will come to us. Because we will receive input, all of us will receive input. Did you receive this information from that person? What have we heard from the state? Have we heard anything from AAG? Is there anything from another school? All of that information gets taken into account before we make a decision. And then we make that decision with our students, our faculty, and all of our employees at the core of that, to make sure that they receive the right information, that it’s correct information, and that it’s as timely as it possibly can be. And I realize that sometimes it was a little on the slower side, because we are waiting for a fact of a piece of information, so that we are not sharing something that is inaccurate or incomplete. So, those details are important to us.
DR. SINGH
Thanks, Karen. Having said that, we will analyze this incident with our team and see how we can improve that in the future, our communication, so… and I know you have, we will have meetings, you talked to Scott and a few people today and you have a lead on some… and Scott, I agree with you, when we work together we can solve any problem. As we have for the last 6, 7 years.
SCOTT HADDOCK
We have done.
DR. SINGH
Thank you for that.
DR. WOOTEN
I have just one followup question. One of the points that was raised that I was wondering about was for students or staff who might ask for counseling, or for additional advice. I know you are around during the summer, is our counseling department, mental health and support services available still?
DR. SINGH
Can you answer that question?
UNKNOWN SPEAKER 1
Yes, counseling will be available during the summertime. There are still resources available. <unintelligible>
SCOTT HADDOCK
May I ask, is that remote? Can that counseling be done remotely?
UNKNOWN SPEAKER 1
Yes, we have the availability for both Zoom and in person.