Copyright 2012, All Rights Reserved,
Center for Aggression Management
Training and Systems that Prevent Violence
CAPS at EKU!
The Critical Aggression Prevention System we call CAPS has now been in place at Eastern
Kentucky University for over a significant period.
Below is an article published during implementation training. Notice the hopes expressed that
CAPS would offer a much more effective way to identify protential problems in their student's lifes
in time to not only prevent violence, but to also be a positive force in helping the students avoid
contimuing up the aggression continuum!
Reports from EKU indicate that, although implemented on a limited scale, the program has
exceeded expectations and planning is underway to expand implementation more broadly.
Byrnes said CAPS features three components: first observers (the eyes and ears for
aggression on campus), qualified responders [now referred to as aggression managers]
(trained assistance/intervention team members) and the software platform (meter of
emerging aggression and longitudinal tracking of aggression on campus).
“It’s another way to utilize multiple resources and incorporate technology that allows us
to better serve students,” Conneely said. “It plays to our goal of student success.”
Through the training, EKU faculty and staff will learn to distinguish between simple
aberrant or disruptive behavior and threatening behavior and how to identify and report
“red flags” more effectively.
Byrnes said that, in learning to objectively measure aggression, EKU faculty and staff
will be better equipped to determine an aggressor’s potential for violence and engage
with appropriate skills to make the campus safer.
Byrnes also noted an Education Testing Service study that shows a corresponding
relationship between aggression on campus and learning. “As CAPS diminishes
aggression at EKU, it will also enhance learning.”
More than 60 staff members and a handful of faculty members participated in the initial
round of training. “We’ll open it up to faculty and staff across campus soon,” Good
noted.
The Center for Aggression Management was founded by Byrnes in 1993. The author of
“Before Conflict: Preventing Aggressive Behavior,” he is a frequent presenter for some of
the country’s largest corporations, organizations and schools.
EKU as "Vanguard of Campus Safety" with Aggression Prevention System
Posted to EKU’s website on: January 31, 2011
As a beta site nationally for its
implementation of the Campus Aggression
Prevention System (CAPS), Eastern
Kentucky University is at “the vanguard of
campus safety.”
So says John D. Byrnes, founder and CEO of
the Center for Aggression Management, who
was on the Richmond campus recently to
help train dozens of EKU staff and faculty in
the use of CAPS, which is based on the
measurement of emerging aggression.
Because CAPS is grounded in the principles
of prevention and mitigation, it meshes well
with the University’s Student Assistance and
Intervention Team, according to Dr. Claire
Good, associate vice president of Student
Affairs and dean of students. The core
members of the team, which has met
regularly for the past two years to discuss
potential developing situations and work
toward policy development, are Good; Dr. Jen
Walker, director of the Counseling Center;
Mark Welker, executive director of public
safety; and Kenna Middleton, director of
University Housing. Others join the team as
situations demand.
“The intention of this team is to take a holistic
view of what’s going on with a student, gather
information, talk with the student, and figure
out the best way to help them,” Good said.
The goal is not to punish students, but to help
them get the support they need. “It’s a
pro-active approach, not punitive, and has
nothing to do with law enforcement or the
campus judicial system,” Good emphasized.
Dr. Jim Conneely, vice president of Student
Affairs, said, “Our approach when we meet
with a student is, ‘Here are our concerns, we
care, what can we do?’ The point is to
intervene in an earlier fashion, because we
don’t want it to get to the point where a
person exhibits violent behavior. We hope we
can take some positive steps before problems
escalate into major issues.”
The aim of CAPS is to track both primal and
cognitive aggression, identifying acts of
emerging aggression based on an objective
scale and then recording those acts in a
software-based tracking system. Responders
are trained to intervene appropriately to stop
the aggressor before serious harm can be
done. Use of the CAPS system is another
tool for use by the Student Assistance and
Intervention Team, Good said, and adds
another component in identifying appropriate
assistance or intervention strategies.
Contact Information
Dr. Jim Conneely
james.conneely@eku.edu
859-622-1721