It’s that moment when you see something sketchy on campus — someone’s behavior causes you to take a second glance or a classmate seems a bit off — but you can’t think of who would care.

There is one organization on campus whose job is to do just that: to care.

Following the rise in random acts of violence over the past decade, universities have developed behavioral intervention teams to provide resources to their campus communities when people exhibit or report behaviors of concern.

The University has a 4-year-old behavioral intervention team, known as the C.A.R.E. team, which stands for communicate, assess, refer and educate. The team seeks to identify students in crisis, in distress or of concern and intervene in the individuals’ lives by providing resources that will prevent escalation of the situation.

Jennie Stewart, the assistant dean of students and the associate director of C.A.R.E., said the need for intervention could be triggered by anything ranging from a self-referral to something someone has observed, heard, seen or read, a student’s outburst in class, declining grades or even getting arrested.

Anyone can report to the C.A.R.E. team using a link on the Student Life and Enrollment website called LSU Cares.

Stewart said the C.A.R.E. team’s response depends on the nature of what is reported.

“The more information people provide, the better, because it gives us a broader range of options for how to respond,” Stewart said.

In certain cases where a student might touch several different departments, that individual is discussed at weekly C.A.R.E. team meetings when members put puzzle pieces together about the situation and share and gather information, Stewart said.

The C.A.R.E. team is made up of representatives from various campus life groups who are better able to determine the best way to intervene and get an individual the resources they need in complicated instances.

However, Stewart said most things shared with C.A.R.E. are not going to go through the team.

“I’m like the middle of the spider web,” Stewart said. “I am serving students by trying to gather and share information so that we know the best and most efficient way that they can be served.”

Stewart said C.A.R.E. reports increase and are more severe during the spring semester with reports regarding mental health and substance abuse. In contrast, the fewer reports in the fall semester tend to reflect student adjustment issues, drinking and substance abuse.

LSUPD’s C.A.R.E. team member Sgt. Kevin Scott said many of the issues that are brought to the team come from police interaction with students.

“We see things at all hours,” Scott said. “We are the only ones students can call when everyone is at home.”

LSUPD’s 24-hour availability to students allows them to be the “eyes and ears” on the C.A.R.E. team, Scott said.

For this reason, Scott said students should not think of police as enforcers, but as valuable contacts for concerns.

“In my experience on the team and interacting with students, faculty and staff, there is a large percentage of folks who don’t want to call the police because they think that is too severe based on concerns,” Scott said.

Scott said the LSUPD is not going to evaluate a situation as an enforcer but instead will focus efforts on making contact with the appropriate resources to help an individual.

“That may have been true 15 or 20 years ago, but law enforcement’s role is changing and evolving with social trends to deal with folks in distress,” Scott said.

 “In my experience on the team and interacting with students, faculty and staff, there is a large percentage of folks who don’t want to call the police because they think that is too severe based on concerns.”