For Chairs & Academic Unit Heads of Faculty Members Being Targeted 

Report It 

• If there is an imminent physical danger or there has been a direct threat of physical violence, call 911 immediately. If there is no immediate physical threat, but a threat to personal safety through emails, phone calls, online posts, or other means, you should report it through UVA Just Report It. 
• Refer the faculty member to the steps listed on the For Faculty section of this website - Reporting and First Steps.

If needed, work with the dean’s office to facilitate the physical relocation of assigned classrooms and/or office space. 

Try to Set the Faculty Member at Ease 

These experiences can be alarming for most faculty. It is important to let the faculty member know that they are not the only one to whom this has happened and that there are options for how to handle it.  

Explain How Academic Freedom is Protected  

Inform the faculty member what is and is not covered by academic freedom protections and reassure them that their personal safety will be protected.  

• AAUP has frequently asked questions about academic freedom and its limitations.   
• UVA Statement on Free Expression and Free Inquiry.  
• Faculty Handbook: 3.1 Academic Freedom 
• See the Provost’s Remarks on Free Expression and Academic Freedom.  

“The University administration stands ready to assist you to do everything we can to ensure our faculty’s safety and ability to pursue their teaching and scholarship, free of harassment, and consistent with our parallel commitments as a public university to the protections of free speech—including constitutionally-protected hateful speech—on which an open, free, and contentious democracy depends.” 

“The University is committed to protecting the academic freedom of our faculty to pursue research and teach courses on sensitive and controversial topics and to follow the evidence and truth wherever they lead, according to the standards of your disciplines, across all your areas of expertise.” 

 Faculty members should always make an effort to indicate that they do not speak for the institution in accordance with the University policy on Faculty Political Activity. 

Activate a Support System 

Faculty members undergoing these experiences will need help from mentors and colleagues who can listen and provide emotional support.  

• Check in and ask if they have a support network. If they do not, consider asking a colleague to reach out to them regularly during this period. 
• Encourage them to contact the Faculty and Employee Assistance Program (FEAP) for counseling and other services.  
• The faculty member can be encouraged to disengage from the harassment by having a friend monitor personal emails, social media, voice messages, etc. on their behalf. They can create a filter for incoming emails so that they do not have to view them. These messages should be preserved for potential future evidence if needed.

 Communicate 

• Consult with your dean’s office to ensure they are aware of the situation and about next steps. 
• Assess whether others in the department or dean’s office (e.g., administrative staff who answer the phone) may be in the path of targeted phone calls or harassing messages. If so, provide a script for answering phone calls and work with the dean’s office and school-based communicators (who will coordinate with University communications as appropriate) to determine a course of action.  
• Working with the appropriate University departments and officials, assess the broader safety issues for the targeted individual(s). For example, you may consider whether workspaces (office, lab, classroom) should be temporarily moved or protected, whether contact information should be temporarily removed from department websites, and whether others are at risk.