Cougars Care: When and Why to Use It
The exterior of Woodland Hall, where students can find The Office of Student Affairs.
Imagine you learn that a classmate is struggling academically, or someone on campus is having trouble paying for textbooks, or a friend is starting to seem distressed and unwell. You want to help, but you may not know how. For all these scenarios, it could be best to first reach out to Cougars Care, a system for directing students to resources at Chatham University.
What are Cougars Care alerts for?
At its core, Cougars Care helps connect students to resources on campus that can help them, according to Amanda K. Oaks-Christman, Chatham’s coordinator for student success.
She emphasized that getting a message from someone from Cougars Care is “not a bad thing.”
“Cougars Care is us wanting to support you and help you,” she said. “It does not mean you’re in trouble, it does not mean someone is upset with you.”
A faculty member may submit an alert for a student who missed a couple of classes and didn’t respond to emails asking about their absences, she said.
The faculty member may choose to submit an alert for the student, and someone from The Office of Student Affairs could then reach out to someone with whom the student already has a relationship – a resident assistant for on-campus students or a coach for a student athlete – to check in on the student.
“Whatever that faculty member includes in their referral, that’s not something that’s going to be shared detail-for-detail with someone like an RA, which is obviously a fellow student,” Amanda said. “We would just say something to the effect of, ‘Hey, can you check in on so-and-so? They maybe missed a couple of classes.’”
Examples of alerts received by the Office of Student Affairs have also included concerns from a witness to an argument between students and someone who noticed their peer developing challenges with eating.
For more immediate and dangerous matters, such as a student expressing suicidal ideation or someone being badly injured, Amanda suggested immediately contacting someone from the Office of Student Affairs or public safety.
“The thing I always say to folks is, if you’re wondering if you should submit a Cougars Care alert, you should submit a Cougars Care alert.”
Overall though, she encourages people to use Cougars Care whenever they think it might be needed.
“The thing I always say to folks is, if you’re wondering if you should submit a Cougars Care alert, you should submit a Cougars Care alert,” she said.
“If there’s anything that has you thinking that your friend, your peer – a student that you interact with – could benefit from support, send that Cougars Care alert and then our staff will be able to identify what is available to them on campus.”
How do I send a Cougars Care alert?
To access Cougars Care, first sign in to your Chatham.edu account. The homepage will display four options: “My Relationships,” “Support Network,” “Ask for Help,” and “Refer a Friend.”
If you are sending an alert regarding a peer, click the “Refer a Friend” option with the magnifying glass. From there, you can search for whom you want to refer; when their name appears in the results list, click the “Send Alert” button beside their name on the righthand side of the screen. All you need to do is fill out a brief referral form about the type of support this person may need.
If you are submitting a request for yourself, click the “Ask for Help” box with the life preserver icon. This will take you through a similar process where you can fill out a brief form about the kind of help you are seeking.
The Cougars Care team will know that you submitted these types of reports, so it is not anonymous. But your name will not be shared with the student you are referring or anyone outside of the Office of Student Affairs Care Team, unless there are faculty or staff involved on a need-to-know basis. Students who are the subject of a report of concern will not know who sent the report.
What else can Cougars Care help me with?
“Cougars Care is us wanting to support you and help you. It does not mean you’re in trouble, it does not mean someone is upset with you.
Also visible on the Cougars Care landing screen is the “My Relationships” box. Clicking this will display the names of students’ faculty for the current semester and the student’s academic advisor. If you have a resident assistant or success coach, these names will also be visible.
The “Support Network” page leads to general campus resources that may be helpful: the Counseling Center, Student Health Services, the Office of Accessibility and Academic Resources, and more.
These tabs are good places to start if you are looking for help on campus, but unsure of where you should begin searching.