COLORADO SPRINGS — The University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) released an independent third-party review of its safety policies leading up to the shooting that left two people dead in an on-campus dorm room back in February.
Samuel Knopp, a UCCS student, and Celie Montgomery, a visitor, were killed after a gunman opened fire in Knopp's dorm room. Knopp's roommate, Nicholas Jordan, has since been charged for their deaths.
UCCS hired attorney Jason Dunn with the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP, and former Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers to conduct a review of the school's response before and after the shooting. In the report, the group of lawyers reviewed the school's policies surrounding housing and safety and gave a list of recommendations to the school.
The recommendations include needed improvements in the university's software that allows staff to see all reports of behaviors of concern from a single student in one place, a quicker path to resolving and handling issues between roommates, a review of the campus' Emergency Operations Plan, and more on-campus training to test the emergency operations plan.
The report also gives new details about the behavior of the suspected gunman, Nicholas Jordan, including multiple UCCS police reports of Jordan harassing female students.
One police report in December 2023 said Jordan was reported to have approached females on the UCCS campus asking them if they would like to drink and have "relations" with him. UCCS Police investigated the report and after talking with both parties decided no further follow-up was needed. In an interview with police, the report said Jordan told an officer he was just trying to be friendly.
The report goes into the details of how Jordan became a roommate with Knopp and the repeated complaints made by Knopp regarding Jordan's behavior of smoking weed, cigarettes, and cigars in his dorm room and said a woman was living with Jordan in his room, against dorm policy.
UCCS Custodial Staff, who were not identified in the report on January 5, 2024, noted that Jordan's room was becoming a "severe violation of health policies", as the staff member had reported a strong smell of marijuana, and that the toilet was overflowing soaking the living room and bedroom carpets.
Despite reports from both Jordan and Knopp over concerns about their living situations with each other and requests for a change of residence, the report said the two students never followed through on the process of moving. The report said in February, Knopp and his other roommate agreed to move into another housing unit. The two were scheduled to move out on Feb. 16, the day of the shooting.
News5's Maggie Bryan will have a full breakdown of the report on News5 at 6 p.m. and an interview with the UCCS Chancellor. UCCS is expected to hold a press conference at 1 p.m., we will live stream that here. You can read the full report for yourself below:
You can read a summary of the recommended actions and the university's response to these recommendations below.
1. UCCS should immediately improve its tracking of multiple reports of behaviors of concern from a single student.
University Response: The campus was already in the process of migrating to a better system for tracking multiple student issues prior to the tragedy. The more robust Maxient software, which allows more comprehensive and easy-to-use tracking, has been in place as of August 1, 2024, for the Office of the Dean of Students CARE Team, basic needs, conduct, and residence life reporting purposes. The CARE Team has reported that the new system allows for easier tracking of individual student issues and greater information sharing with a larger number of campus units. The CARE Team has also seen an increase of faculty reports since implementation due to a better user interface. Staff are receiving ongoing training to ensure they are using it to its fullest capacity.
2. UCCS should conduct a full review of its threat assessment protocol to ensure it is comprehensive and includes follow-up with students appropriately.
University Response: In fall 2023, the Office of the Dean of Students initiated a full policy review and began revising the procedures (including CARE Team membership, roles, and documentation), with the original plan including a full campus review in spring 2024. However, because of the February 16 incident, the Dean of Students paused that review in order to incorporate any lookback recommendations. Now that the lookback has been completed, these suggestions will be incorporated into the ongoing work. The Office of the Dean of Students will send the final review to the campus community in the spring 2025 semester.
3. A representative from UCCS’s Counsel’s Office should be added to the CARE Team.
University Response: As discussed in response to recommendation number 2, an analysis is already underway to expand the membership of the CARE Team. As part of that, a member of University Counsel will be added as a core member. This will be communicated to the campus community along with the other recommendations, including more expanded membership, in the spring 2025.
4. The CARE Team should document its discussions more thoroughly, particularly in cases where multiple behaviors of a single student are noted.
University Response: The new Maxient reporting system was designed with the NaBita threat assessment tool in mind, so the fields in the system correlate with that tool. These fields allow CARE Team members to capture more details of student discussions, allowing for easier tracking and documentation.
5. Given increasing demands for the critical function of the CARE Team, UCCS should ensure ongoing, appropriate support, including additional staffing.
University Response: Since the incident, the Dean of Students Office has added two additional staff members. The individuals are assigned to both prepare documentation for ongoing CARE Team cases and review each file prior to closure to ensure it is complete.
6. UCCS should redouble its training efforts around reporting behaviors of concern to the CARE Team and should expand the groups engaged and trained to a broader array of campus units outside the traditional groups.
University Response: The Dean of Students Office is currently recording a video to be posted online that will explain the types of behavior to report and how to report. Additionally, some expanded in-person training on Maxient will be held in spring 2025. The CARE Team will collaboratively build the training plan for recommended use at all levels, including New Employee Orientation and college-level meetings. The University also currently offers Skillsoft training for all employees to help members of the campus community identify behaviors of concern in both our student and employee populations.
7. UCCS should immediately review its residence life and housing policies to reduce bureaucracy and ensure that serious incompatibility issues between roommates are more quickly identified and have a clearer and quicker path to resolution.
University Response: As a part of the Student Affairs and Enrollment Management reorganization that took place over spring and summer 2024, the University hired an external consultant to make recommendations to address low occupancy and low retention rates in housing. The consultant has reviewed the contract, handbook, and internal standard operating procedures and made several recommendations throughout the fall 2024 semester. Some of these recommendations addressed responding to conflicts between roommates and the University’s process for handling those complaints. The consultant’s work will be finalized this month. The University has already adopted several of the recommendations as they have been made throughout the fall 2024 semester. The University will continue to evaluate the need for additional changes for fall 2025.
8. UCCS should increase its training for Resident Assistants (RAs).
University Response: The University provided increased conflict management training for RAs in fall 2024, providing more foundational knowledge as well as more practice through role-playing. As the University continues its reorganization of Residence Life and Housing and implementation of the consultant’s recommendations referenced in response to recommendation number 7, the University anticipates engaging in a complete overhaul of RA training for fall 2025.
9. UCCS should review and enhance training for housing staff to ensure that all staff have the tools to accurately track and report student behaviors of concern as well as to resolve conflict and conduct other needed monitoring and oversight.
University Response: In addition to the training listed in response to recommendation number 6, all Residence Life staff have been trained in Maxient. Housing staff are currently being trained in Maxient as a result of the departmental reorganization announced in November 2024. All housing staff will be proficient in Maxient in the spring 2025 semester. Annual conduct training will also contain more targeted instructions for investigations.
10. UCCS should review its Emergency Operations Plan.
University Response: We have recently hired Kris Parsons as the new Emergency Operations Manager. He has already begun a review of the Emergency Operations Plan. Every department that has a role in the plan from 2016 is reviewing their listed expectations and capabilities and providing changes by December 16, 2024. Those changes will be made and an updated plan submitted for approval by the Chancellor in spring 2025, with ongoing revisions made as needed.
11. UCCS should ensure continued open channels of communication with local law enforcement.
University Response: The University values its strong and positive relationship with local law enforcement. As part of our new Police Chief Diana Cooley’s onboarding which began on Oct. 1, we are reviewing our MOUs with those agencies to ensure they are operational.
12. UCCS should conduct more frequent tabletop exercises to test emergency operations and responses.
University Response: The University has increased the frequency of tabletop exercises since the incident. With the release of the updated emergency operations plan, the training subcommittee will establish a plan for regular training, with a goal of holding an exercise once per quarter. According to the Federal Emergency Management Administration and the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program, a training exercise schedule should only be created after the approval of the EOP, as that is the foundation document on which the trainings are based.
13. UCCS should implement campus training on terminology used in emergency situations.
University Response: Currently, the alerts.uccs.edu page has multiple pages (“Emergency Actions and What They Mean,” “How We Notify You and What It Means”) that go over the meaning of each type of message. The Emergency Operations Manager is currently reviewing options to put links in texts to expand messages past the character limit, allowing for greater detail. The Emergency Operations Manager also currently speaks at orientation and other campus preparedness events/classes where he will cover this content. Students Affairs is in the process of updating its SmartMove presentation for GPS first-year students, revising it in coordination with the Police. That training will include the Run/Hide/Fight video and additional education on the terminology. The Skillsoft training described in response to recommendation number 6 also contains information on terminology.
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