Universities as Employers, Not Just Institutions: Trauma Coverage Matters
- Apr 29
- 3 min read
Colleges and universities like to talk about students first, and for good reason, of course. But every campus is also a workplace.
The National Center for Education Statistics last answered “How many people are employed by postsecondary institutions?” in fall 2024. The answer, based on 5,621 institutions: 4,114,069.
That’s millions of people—faculty, administrators, custodians, dining hall staff, security teams, healthcare workers, IT staff, student services professionals, and more—all trying to do their jobs under real pressure. And now more than ever, they need excellent trauma coverage.
Campus Life is Not Trauma-Free
A university may look calm from the outside, but the people working inside it are not insulated from trauma.
They deal with workplace violence, threats, accidents, medical emergencies, public crises, and the emotional strain that comes with serving a large, often stressed population. Some incidents are handled behind closed doors. Others make national news. In 2026 so far, there have been eight shootings on college campuses.
The employees living and working through these events need the same safety nets as anyone else in a high-exposure workplace. Consider how quickly the risk shows up in everyday campus roles:
A campus dining manager is attacked during a late-night robbery in a parking lot.
A facilities employee is seriously injured while breaking up a physical altercation at a sporting event.
An active shooter enters a lecture hall, student union, or administrative building and multiple employees are present.
A campus maintenance worker is killed in a machinery accident during a construction project.
A campus healthcare provider contracts an infectious disease while treating students after their return from studying abroad.
An administrative employee witnesses a shooting or stabbing outside on the quad.
A faculty member watches a violent incident unfold during a class, event, or protest on campus.
In each of these instances, the employee (or their family) could not only receive financial relief, but also long-term counseling to help them recover mentally and emotionally—if their employer offers trauma coverage.
What Complete Trauma Coverage Looks Like for Higher Ed Employees
ATI’s Trauma Coverage comes in five plan levels designed to fit different budgets and risk profiles. Here's what's included:
Trauma Counseling
Confidential therapy that goes well beyond a standard EAP, including psychotherapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy, EMDR, Prolonged Exposure, and medication-assisted treatment for those managing PTSD. (For a faculty member who witnessed a violent incident on campus, for example, this is the kind of sustained, specialized support that actually moves recovery forward.)
Lost Wage Benefit
100% of regular pay from all employment income sources while an employee is unable to work due to trauma, with no waiting period, up to the plan maximum. (What this looks like in higher ed: a campus healthcare worker who contracts an infectious disease, or a staff member too traumatized to return after a shooting, doesn't have to choose between recovery and a paycheck.)
Recuperation Benefit
Reimbursement for out-of-pocket costs tied to recovery: medical, dental, vision, hearing, pharmaceutical expenses, and even the lost wages of a family member who steps in to provide care. For employees without deep financial reserves, this benefit keeps a difficult situation from becoming a financial crisis.
Accidental Death Benefit
A lump sum payment to beneficiaries in the event of accidental death.
One More Thing: The Cost of an Empty Chair
When a traumatic event sidelines an employee, the institution feels it. The missing person might be the registrar who keeps student processes moving, the development officer who maintains donor relationships, the lab manager who keeps research on track, or the facilities leader who keeps the campus safe and open. Replacing any of them—even temporarily—is expensive, disruptive, and hard on the people left behind.
Comprehensive trauma coverage protects employees through recovery. It also protects the institution’s ability to function when the people it depends on need time to heal.
Contact us through this short form to look through coverage plan options that make sense for colleges and universities.