Tuesday, May 27, 2025
2:00 – 3:30 pm ET

Comprehensive Protocols & Response

Losing a student is never easy. The impact is far-reaching and sometimes impossible to assess. Whether related to physical or mental health challenges, poor decision-making or unexplained circumstances, the loss of any young life is tragic and difficult to prepare for. 

Join us on May 27, 2025 when our expert presenters will focus on responding to student death with support, compassion and comprehensive protocols – all of the details that should be included in a responsible and coordinated response. They will offer strategies for: 

• Collaborative protocols for navigating student deaths
• External and internal communication strategies
• Constructing proactive and reactive processes to respond to different campus and community needs
• Considering the implications of students’ unique identities and circumstances surrounding their death 

Regardless of circumstances, how a campus responds can make all the difference to the immediate family impacted and the campus community in mourning. Walk away with practical tools that will help ensure you are fully prepared to deal with a variety of possible tragedies, scenarios and responses related to a student’s death. 

Topics Covered

You will take away critical, actionable tools that will help you:

• Identify critical stakeholders and campus partners to engage and support when responding to student death so you can be prepared for a comprehensive approach and coordinated effort.
• Utilize step by step protocols for leveraging campus and community resources when responding to a student death to fit the context.
• Understand how staff can best communicate with and counsel key constituents following the death of a student and utilize effective communication strategies and tools during and after a student death.
• Incorporate postvention strategies when there is a death by suicide – formulate a postvention plan for campus communities following a sudden student death.
• Discuss strategies for coping mechanisms and responses that your institution can use in the event of a student death and prepare programmatic initiatives to support families, friends, and the campus community in honoring deceased students and holding space for the grieving process.
• Recognize you are not alone in struggling with this difficult topic. 
  

Presenters

Dr. Craig Chesson serves as the Associate Dean of Students at Colorado State University.
Click here for full bio.

John Henderson serves as Associate Dean of Students at Colorado State University (CSU).
Click here for full bio.

Jody Donovan, Ph.D. (she, her, hers) serves as the associate vice president for student affairs at Colorado State University.
Click here for full bio.