Under a new University policy, students can be expelled if their instructor sees them as a threat.
After April's shootings at Virginia Tech, the University began planning the Faculty Intervention Team to prevent violence on campus.
Counseling and Therapy Services handed out pamphlets to instructors to help them identify and report troubled students, said Harry Linneman, director of the program.
Linneman said the program will train faculty next fall to identify and handle potential threats.
The training will be similar to that provided to resident advisors in the dorms, he said.
The pamphlet lists warning signs in color-coded sections: yellow, orange and red.
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The yellow section includes students who isolate themselves, skip class and lose interest in activities they enjoy.
At this point, the pamphlet advises the instructor to document the problem and consult a supervisor about referring the student to counseling.
Beverly Burris, chairwoman of the sociology department, said isolation is a sign of a troubled student.
"In Virginia Tech, there's an indication that the young man was extremely socially isolated," she said.
Burris said she uses Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech gunman, as an example in class.
"If people don't belong to a social community, they lack the norms and don't have a clear sense of how to act," she said. "It's a dangerous way to live."
At the orange level, the pamphlet advises instructors to look for "strange or worrisome" behavior, such as giving away possessions and turning in writings about suicide or violence.
At this point, the pamphlet advises the instructor to report the problem to a supervisor and consider calling the student's parents.
English professor David Dunaway said the FBI has identified patterns in the writing of students who commit violence. But turning in students because of their writings is unethical, Dunaway said.
He said he promises his students confidentiality when he teaches autobiographical writing.
"I want to be in a position where I, as a professor, support the student every way I can in their writing and expression," he said.
Dunaway said he would not turn over students' fiction to counselors, either.
"That seems to me to have gone past some kind of line," he said. "On the basis of their written word, they could just have a fertile imagination."
Dunaway said UNM's protocol on student-teacher relations could prevent professors from identifying the warning signs.
"There are rules governing faculty-student interaction, and those rules have gotten much more strict in recent years, specifically the gender policies," he said. "As these restrictions have grown on faculty-student interaction, it becomes harder for us to find circumstances in which we know our students."
Warning signs in the red level include students who threaten homicide or suicide or have guns, explosives and "ropes/belts (for hanging)."
At this point, the pamphlet advises instructors to ask the student to seek counseling and call for nonemergency transport. If the student refuses, the pamphlet says to call 911.
Students might be suspended or expelled, said Randy Boeglin, dean of students.
Student William Browne said the program encroaches on student freedom.
"Why would you take disciplinary action against someone's ideas?" Browne said, "I mean, that's like thought police."
Dunaway said he is wary of the program.
"As with all discussions of criminal or allegedly terroristic behavior in the public sphere," he said, "we have to be very careful that we don't surrender civil liberties in the name of pursuing behavior which has not yet happened."
Boeglin said he doesn't want students to feel like they are under surveillance.
"We just want them to know that we care, and we care to get them the help they need," he said.
