College campuses have begun to take safety measures to a more heightened level than usual due to various incidents and tragedies that have occurred across the country.
“With continuous threats occurring all over the country as well as in our backyard with locations like Philadelphia, it is imperative that we rely on the tools we currently have at our disposal,” Joseph Fusco, interim director of Public Safety said in an email. As of right now the campus has our mass notification text system called E2 Campus. We use this currently to notify students of any emergency that could be taking place on campus or surrounding the campus via text and e-mail.”
“In efforts to improve on this mass notification system we are currently in the process of investigating systems like desktop an alert system and campus PA alert system in order to further safeguard our campus,” Fusco said.
In an emergency situation, technology allows campuses to reduce emergency response time. Desktop alert systems have been adopted by several college campuses which broadcast an emergency message to all desktop computers connected to its network.
According to survey results compiled and released by Margolis Healy, a private firm that advises colleges on safety and security, most have developed emergency specific operations plans for threats that could potentially be a risk to their institution.
In Cabrini’s Emergency Operations Plan, Incident-Specific Emergency Plans (ISEP) are identified and each plan outlines the necessary actions students should take in a potentially dangerous situation.Some of the plans that have been created in order to be prepared in such a situation include bomb threats and suspicious packages, hazardous weather preparedness strategies and guidelines for how to properly react if an active shooter is present on campus.
In order to determine how to keep students safe, faculty and staff need to hear from students to know what they need in addition to what they think students need.
“Students should know who their schools public safety officials are. I think that in order for students to feel comfortable going to public safety officers the public safety officers should reach out to first-year students so that they are aware of who they are and what they are here for from the start,” Shaun Strowski, Super senior communication major and accounting minor, said.
In the face of a harmful and potentially fatal anonymous threat to college campuses earlier this year, the campus increased security measures to ensure that students were able to attend class without feeling as if they were in danger.
“When the bomb threat occurred in the public area earlier this year, more public safety guards were working on campus as well as Radnor police officers in order to make everyone feel like they could go about their regular daily schedule without feeling as if they were in danger,” Strowski said.
Like many other campuses, Cabrini has blue-light call boxes spread across campus to ensure safety and to provide emergency calls to public safety. Cabrini’s campus alone has a total of 26 blue call boxes, and 17 yellow call boxes for emergency response purposes.
“The calls from these boxes are linked directly to our Public Safety Dispatcher who can dispatch an officer immediately for an emergency call,” Fusco said. What tends to take away from the effectiveness of the call boxes are students using them just to contact Public Safety for lockouts. These call boxes are for emergency use only and should used in a true emergency.”
Some campuses are beginning to employ the use of the Bluelight safety app as well, which provides the public safety dispatchers with the location of students within 60 feet, as well as provides students with direct contact with public safety.
“I have seen the blue light app before, as well as others like it and think it could be useful. Further research will be conducted to see exactly how would could implement something like it for the campus, Fusco said.”
“I think the Bluelight safety app would be really beneficial for students because campus is small and some areas are not as well lit as others,” Strowski said. “I think it could be helpful for someone in a dangerous situation if they had their phone on them and were not close to one of the emergency posts on campus in order to quickly alert the campus about it and receive help from a near police officer or public safety.”
“I think the only time that I felt unsafe was the bomb threat that was made,”Anne-Marie Jones, sophomore Pre-k-4 elementary education major, said. If anything, there could be some more lights on the pathways by the houses and behind the mansion. It is pretty dark and I would feel more secure if there were just a couple more lights. Honestly though, I do feel really safe.”
Public safety is available for contact twenty-four hours a day to ensure the safety of students and will provide escorts if students feel unsafe walking across campus alone. In the event of feeling unsafe on campus, contact the Public Safety Office at 610-902-8245.
