One who believes a student is missing should immediately contact the Vanderbilt University Police Department (VUPD) or staff in Student Care Coordination. If Student Care Coordination is unable to make contact with a student within 24 hours, the potential missing student report will be referred to VUPD or local law enforcement for investigation.
Once VUPD or local law enforcement has determined that a student is missing, the Vice Provost and Dean of Students, or one of the Dean’s designees, will notify the student’s confidential contact (described below) for residential students or emergency contact for non-residential students within twenty-four hours. Vanderbilt University will also notify an appropriate external law enforcement agency, if not already contacted, and relevant University officials, as necessary, about the missing student, within the same 24-hour period.
In compliance with federal law, Vanderbilt University provides each student residing on campus the opportunity to designate a confidential contact to be notified by the University in the event the University, through its established procedures, determines that student residing on campus missing.
Only authorized campus officials will have access to information about a student’s confidential contact. This information will be disclosed to no external parties outside of law enforcement as part of a missing person investigation. Students may designate both emergency contacts and confidential contacts by logging into YES (Your Enrollment Services), and selecting the appropriate process. Students may list the same person for both the Missing Person and the Emergency Contact.
These procedures, including the designation of a confidential contact, are available to all Vanderbilt students residing on campus. In the case of non-emancipated students under the age of eighteen, federal law requires that a custodial parent or guardian be notified; however, an additional, confidential contact may also be specified. This can be completed through YES.