Session Descriptions
NASPA Region III – Mississippi Drive-in Pre-Conference
Karolina Kastsiuchenka, Coordinator of International Student Engagement
Jackie Mullen, Ph.D., Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs
Mississippi State University
Feeling Threatened vs. Being Threatened: Navigating Fear, Risk, and Institutional Responsibility
Brian Van Brunt, Ed.D., Director of Behavior and Threat Management
D-Prep Safety
Faculty, staff, and students frequently report situations that feel threatening, but not all discomfort reflects elevated risk. This session explores how institutions can distinguish between subjective fear and objective indicators of concern while still validating experiences and responding appropriately. Participants will review common behavioral patterns, communication strategies, privacy limitations, and practical approaches to reduce escalation while maintaining trust.
Topics:
- Distinguishing distress, disruption, and danger
- Supporting faculty without over-pathologizing students
- Communicating decisions while preserving privacy
- Avoiding both underreaction and overreaction
- Building confidence in referral and reporting processes
A View from FIRE: Navigating Campus Free Speech Challenges in a Turbulent Time
Will Creeley, J.D., Legal Director
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)
Student and faculty rights continue to be a cultural and constitutional flashpoint. From the classroom to the courthouse, from state capitals to Capitol Hill, debates rage about free speech and academic freedom on campus. Where exactly is the line between peaceful protest and actionable harassment? What freedoms do faculty possess when teaching and writing? And what power do lawmakers have over curriculum and campus expression? The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has been heavily involved in each of these debates—and Will Creeley, FIRE's legal director, has plenty to say about them. Join Will as he explores the latest developments — and explains how to uphold First Amendment rights on your campus in these challenging times.
Managing Legal Issues from the Senior Student Affairs Officer Perspective
Moderator – Regina Young Hyatt, Ph.D., Vice President for Student Affairs
Mississippi State University
Jacqueline Gibson, Ed.D., Vice President of Student Affairs & Enrollment Management
Mississippi Valley State University
Shawnboda Mead, Ed.D., Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs
The University of Mississippi
Senior student affairs officers, or SSAOs, are often at the center of complex legal and compliance matters impacting student life. This panel will explore how SSAOs navigate legal challenges, partner with counsel, and lead through sensitive situations while advancing institutional values. Participants will gain practical insights and leadership strategies to support legally sound, student-centered decision-making.
Assessing Social Media, Student Writing, and Concerning Communications
Brian Van Brunt, Ed.D., Director of Behavior and Threat Management
D-Prep Safety
Disturbing essays, emails, videos, and social media posts present difficult questions about expression, intent, and institutional response. This session provides a structured framework for evaluating concerning communications without overreacting or relying on assumptions. Participants will review concepts such as fixation, leakage, context, audience, and escalation indicators while considering legal and privacy implications. Practical tools will be provided to support documentation and defensible decision-making.
Topics:
- Protected speech vs. indicators of concern
- Fixation, leakage, and grievance patterns
- Context, audience, and intent in written communications
- Anonymous reporting and anonymous content
- Documentation standards and preserving digital evidence
- Avoiding viewpoint bias and overreaction
A Holistic Approach to the Behavioral Intervention Team Model
Emily Stephens, Director of Student Conduct and Care & Concern
Jessie Lewis, Associate Director of Care & Concern
Mississippi State University
The Care and Concern Team at Mississippi State University, has a holistic approach when navigating referrals and reports regarding a concern for our students. While the team manages higher-level behavioral issues, our model also provides measures for us to identify lower-level concerns that assist with early intervention – class absences, roommate conflicts, etc. One of the best ways universities can do this is through their relationships with campus partners and these partners’ presence and input on the team. This also helps to cut out the silos of information to ensure the team is assessing the full picture of the student’s engagement on campus.
Conduct, Disability, or CARE? Navigating the Gray Areas
Brian Van Brunt, Ed.D., Director of Behavior and Threat Management
D-Prep Safety
Many of the most challenging student cases do not belong neatly within one office or process. This session provides a practical framework for determining when concerns should be managed through conduct, disability accommodations, BIT/CARE, counseling, or a coordinated multidisciplinary response. Participants will review common points of confusion and learn strategies for reducing duplicated efforts and conflicting interventions. The session emphasizes role clarity, information sharing, and legally defensible decision-making.
Topics:
- Shared decision models
- Documentation and information sharing
- Avoiding duplicated or conflicting interventions
- Managing legal and reputational risk
Web Accessibility: A Practical Field Guide
Brett Harvey, J.D., Associate General Counsel and Director of Regulatory Compliance
Mississippi State University
With a one-year postponement now more than half gone, the April 2027 implementation date for the Department of Justice’s regulations on web accessibility looms larger than ever. The requirements are clear in theory but potentially confusing in practice. Most institutions have at least begun taking remedial steps but may find themselves stuck on the details of implementation. How does one fix structural issues in thousands of PDFs, add audio descriptions to hundreds of videos, ensure every social media post is compliant, and train independent-minded faculty to strictly adhere to WCAG requirements in their Canvas courses? This presentation briefly summarizes key regulatory requirements, then turns to a discussion of how institutions around the country are actually getting the job done, as well as identifying questions and challenges that don’t yet have clear solutions.
First Amendment Primer: Students and Student Organizations
Will Creeley, J.D., Legal Director
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)
Students and student organizations have the right to speak out — but what does that mean in practice? In this concurrent session, Will Creeley, legal director of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, will explain exactly what the First Amendment does and does not protect. Drawing on the latest headlines, case law, and two decades of experience defending free speech, attendees will learn the law, best practices, and practical advice to protect debate, discussion, and dissent while addressing discriminatory harassment, true threats, and violence.
Beyond Red Flags: What Threat Teams Often Miss
Brian Van Brunt, Ed.D., Director of Behavior and Threat Management
D-Prep Safety
Behavioral intervention and threat assessment work often emphasizes identifying warning signs, but overreliance on “red flags” can create blind spots. This session examines overlooked factors including protective elements, context, changing behavior patterns, and team dynamics that influence outcomes. Participants will explore how decision fatigue, assumptions, and incomplete information shape risk decisions. The session shifts the conversation from predicting violence toward building effective mitigation and support strategies.
Topics:
- Protective factors and why they matter
- Behavioral change over static risk factors
- Team drift and decision fatigue
- Missing contextual variables (housing, finances, identity, isolation)
- How assumptions create blind spots
- Building mitigation plans instead of predicting violence
Public Employee First Amendment Protections in a Hyper-Partisan World
Brett Harvey, J.D., Associate General Counsel and Director of Regulatory Compliance
Mississippi State University
In 2025, an estimated six hundred employees were fired, disciplined, or investigated for statements about the murder of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. Some were public employees who have challenged these decisions via First Amendment lawsuits. These lawsuits have yielded a range of results: large settlements and reinstatements in some cases, and decisions granting or denying dismissal in others. More importantly, they are reshaping the legal boundaries of First Amendment protection of politically controversial speech by public employees. This presentation will survey the outcomes and decisions so far to provide guidance on what is and isn’t protected when employees speak out stridently in an increasingly contentious public square.
Neurodiversity on Campus: Practical Strategies for Supporting Students, Faculty, and Staff in Higher Education
Dr. Jordan Spencer, Director of ACCESS and Specialized College Services
Dr. Kasee Stratton-Gadke, Executive Director, Mississippi Institute on Disabilities, Professor—School Psychology
Mississippi State University
As colleges and universities strive to create more inclusive campus environments, increasing numbers of neurodivergent students, faculty, and staff are seeking meaningful opportunities to learn, work, and contribute within higher education settings. This presentation explores the legal, ethical, and practical considerations involved in supporting neurodivergent individuals on college campuses, with a particular focus on professor-student relationships, workplace engagement, accommodations, communication, and institutional culture.
Documentation That Holds Up: Notes, Reports, and Records Requests
Brian Van Brunt, Ed.D., Director of Behavior and Threat Management
D-Prep Safety
Documentation is one of the strongest predictors of consistency, defensibility, and continuity across institutional responses. This session focuses on practical approaches to creating case notes, reports, and records that support decision-making without creating unnecessary risk. Participants will explore common documentation pitfalls, subjective language, discoverability concerns, and records management practices. The session will provide tools to improve clarity, strengthen communication, and create records that remain useful long after the case closes.
Topics:
- What belongs in a case note
- Avoiding subjective language
- FERPA and discoverability
- Retention and records management
- Writing reports people can actually use
The Impact of Master Planning on Student Success & Engagement
Saunders Ramsey, Associate Vice President of Administration
Jeremiah Dumas, Associate Vice President of Administration
Mississippi State University
For more than a century, Mississippi State University's campus has grown through a continuous cycle of master planning — from its earliest agricultural-college grounds plans through the 2022 Campus Plan's guiding "Big Ideas" of a strengthened campus core, connected clusters, smart growth, a westside connection, a green corridor, and ecological stewardship. This session examines how that physical planning translates directly into student success and engagement, moving beyond aesthetics and traffic counts to ask how the built environment shapes whether students walk instead of drive, gather instead of isolate, and feel connected to their institution.
Drawing on MSU's active portfolio of transportation and capital projects — a campus-wide mobility framework linking vehicular, transit, bike, and pedestrian networks; federally and locally funded safety corridors such as the Blackjack Road Safe Streets for All project and the Highway 12 RAISE planning grant; the West Side Connectivity Project; and mixed-use development along Hardy Street — this presentation traces a clear line from infrastructure investment to daily student experience: safer routes to class, walkable gathering spaces, and a denser, greener campus core that supports informal social interaction.
The session also extends the conversation beyond the campus edge, examining how Mississippi State’s growth studies intersect with regional partners, including three decades of downtown Meridian planning — the 2004 ULI Downtown Meridian Study, the 2018 City of Meridian Downtown Master Plan, and the 2024 Place + Main Real Estate Game Plan — to show how university and community master planning reinforce one another.
Attendees will leave with a framework for reading their own institution's master plan through a student-engagement lens, practical examples of funding transportation and connectivity projects through federal, state, and local partnerships, and a case study in aligning facilities and transportation planning with the student experience mission.