With other media sensations taking over the spotlight from the concerns of campus violence, the UW is making it clear that keeping the student body safe is still a priority.

A workshop to be held tomorrow afternoon will focus on how instructors and teaching assistants can help increase safety among the student body.

"[The workshop] is targeted to faculty and teaching assistants to help equip them with the knowledge to spot potentially threatening situations in the classroom, how to respond to them and where to go for assistance," said Norm Arkans, director of media relations at the University of Washington.

"This is part of the University's initiatives to make our campusessafer places for everyone," Arkans said.

The workshop is sponsored by a unit of the Graduate School known as the Center for Instructional Development and Research, or CIDR, as well as the UW Advisory Council on Violence Prevention. While the workshop may be aimed specifically at anyone who teaches in a classroom setting at any UW campus, that should not dissuade the interested student from attending, as the workshop is completely free and open to the University community at large.

"At [the] CIDR we are particularly interested in how issues of safety manifest themselves and can be addressed in the context of teaching and learning" said Donald Wulff, director of CIDR. "This forum is an effort to help faculty and teaching assistants who have questions about how best to address safety in their roles as instructors and what resources are available on campus to assist them."

With the murder of Rebecca Griego by Jonathan Rowan last spring, the Virginia Tech shootings and the increased security around the Law School this month, campus safety has been the talk of the University.

"Events last spring on our campus and Virginia Tech and at other institutions this fall have drawn much attention to workplace and relationship violence," UW President Mark Emmert said.

Working together, faculty and staff at the UW have already made significant changes to improve resources and communication about preventing violence on campus, Emmert said.

"This year's Fall Quarterly Forum on Teaching and Learning will focus on the role of faculty and teaching assistants in creating a safe environment for teaching and learning," he said.

The workshop will take place from 3 to 5 p.m., in the Walker-Ames room of Kane Hall.

[Reach reporter Anthony Michael Erickson at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]