Dealing with aggressive visitors to the Department

[SallyOMalley]

I'm not an academic, but I could do with insight from others that work in universities.

I'm an admissions officer working within a Department. Over the past couple of weeks, we have had repeated unsolicited visits from an applicant that is simply not qualified for the course in question. We have gone down all the usual routes, but he's not taking no for an answer.

He comes in with a parent, and there is an increasing level of aggression. He came in again yesterday and, knowing the past history, i sat with him and his mother in full view of a colleague rather than in a private roim. It all went completely the top with finger pointing, leaning in towards me, shouting, and his mother even telling me to shut up.

For clarity, he is an international applicant, and I have gone to great lengths to explain our system and why we ask for the qualifications we require, just in case it's a lack of knowledge that is causing confusion and therefore aggression on their part.

It's getting out of hand and I'm having trouble shutting this one down. It's now involving staff at a very senior level, which is a bit ridiculous.

This isn't the first time I've been exposed to aggression by applicants. Does your institution have guidelines in place regarding dealing with aggressive individuals (a bit like the NHS, for example). I can't find anything at our institution. Thanks.

Sally I don't know about official procedures, but I just wanted to say how horrible for you. It sounds like he may have issues beyond just the lack of qualifications. I'm glad you are getting senior support and would strongly urge you not to see them again, but only communicate in writing. If they unsolicitedly (is that a word?!) turn up then call campus security, having worked out a plan with senior managers beforehand.

I have dealt with students who clearly have issues, including one who accused lots of staff of lots of things to the point no-one wanted to take them on even for teaching modules, especially as none of the accusations ever had any actual evidence. I did all the things you are saying- only saw them with the door open and with another colleague around, communicated clearly in writing with no room for ambiguity but it was stressful knowing their propensity to make complaints.

Do you have on-site security? Can you get him banned from campus on the basis of his aggressive behaviour?

Our campus is split into two parts which are about a 15min walk apart. Security services is based on the other site unfortunately, with no presence on our site. There are porters/receptionists in the building next door but nothing in our building.

This does throw up a few questions about safety of staff in buildings where anyone can just walk in - it's unlikely that anything serious would happen, but events this week has demonstrated an example of a very difficult situation. I think I'll talk it through further with our dept manager and HOD.

(*have not has!)

I'm a bit shocked you don't have security on call. In our department I would have called security as soon as they became aggressive and they would be there in a few minutes (usually by car as their office is the other end of the campus). We'd never expect any admin or academic staff to deal with this sort of thing.

As an applicant, there is no contractual relationship with him. You're fully entitled to refuse to meet him again.

Definitely raise the point about being able to call security where needed.

I was on campus for an event yesterday, and happened to be passing the Security Services' door. So, I popped in and had a very fruitful discussion.

As has been effectively pointed out here, a person who isn't an offer holder or a current student, or has not been invited into university buildings has no right to be there. We don't have a public space such as a cafe or a bar in our building so it's considered a 'private' space. We're well within our rights to call security in difficult and aggressive situations.

In addition, there is an app for mobile phones that acts as a 'panic button' and calls Security directly. I was aware of this for students but hadn't joined the dots to use it myself (duh).

I'm pleased I went in to see them and I was pleased they took it seriously. I think I still need to talk to our dept management to get guidelines written up so that all staff know what to do in similar situations. I'll do that next week.

Thanks all!

Sally that all sounds really positive and looks like you can make a difference in your department as well- or even a policy across the uni, as you can't be alone in this issue.

Well done!