Periodically, UCAR leadership and the Office of Access, Culture, and Opportunity put out messages to our staff and broader community in response to events in our society. When deciding whether to send messages to our staff, we follow the guidelines below.

Our priority is to support our staff and to raise awareness of these issues within our community.

Acts of violence

• An act of mass violence* directly impacts our staff members at one of our facilities or in their local community.
• An act of mass violence* in a community where one of our facilities is located. 
• An act of violence of any type or size at one of our facilities.
• An act of mass violence* or targeted violence impacts one of our member institutions.
• The Office of Access, Culture, and Opportunity releases all-staff messages when an act of  mass violence* occurs within the U.S. that targets one or more groups that are marginalized within the United States and that represents a threat to the safety, life, and livelihood of the affected groups in our community.

These guidelines were last revised in October 2024.

*For the purposes of these guidelines, we define “mass violence” as four or more people killed or injured as a result of a deliberate act, as aligned with the methodology of the non-partisan Gun Violence Archive.