Supporting student learning and development through trauma-informed campuses

Abstract

Many students come to higher education with a history of trauma. College life may also expose students to traumatizing events. While the past decade has witnessed greater discussion of trauma-informed frameworks, it has not regularly been applied to the college environment. We advance the concept of a trauma-informed campus, where administrators, faculty, staff, and students from diverse disciplines create an environment that recognizes the widespread nature of trauma, integrates knowledge about trauma into practices and procedures, and minimizes further re-traumatization for all community members. A trauma-informed campus is prepared for students’ past or future traumatic experiences, while also recognizing and responding to structural and historical harms. In addition, it recognizes the role of the surrounding community challenges, particularly how violence, substance use, hunger, poverty, and housing insecurity may contribute to further trauma or negatively impact healing. We use an ecological model to frame and shape the construct of trauma-informed campuses.

Keywords:

• Higher education
• trauma
• trauma-informed care

Conflict of interest disclosure

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of the NIH. The funders had no role in the development or preparation of this manuscript. All authors report no competing interests. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America approval from the Temple University Institutional Review Board.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (K23 HD101554; PI: Schroeder) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Sarwer’s work was supported by grant funding from the NIH (National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research R01 DE026603) as well as the Department of Defense.