Utah State keeps up with security
Cache Valley has been rated the safest metropolitan area to live in two of the past three years, yet USU officials are continually revamping their systems and procedures to ensure their readiness for any situation.
USU Vice President of Student Services Gary Chambers said USU is working hard to keep the students safe while on campus.
“We have programs that we do all the time that are geared toward keeping our campus citizenry safe and informed,” he said.
According to Chambers, one feature recently added to the school’s arsenal is the campus safety tab on the USU home page.
With a simple click any student, employee or faculty member can investigate different options ranging from how to report, or get help after being sexually assaulted to counseling options for stressed-out students.
The new section of the USU site came into existence after Chambers and the rest of the safety committee decided the best way to continue campus safety was to provide students with as much information as possible.
“We are not reacting to problems; we’re trying to maintain safety in the area,” Chambers said.
The university is also in the process of implementing a mass notification system, Connect Ed, by which thousands of students will be contacted at once in the case of an emergency.
But most of the safety on campus would not be possible without the constant surveillance of the USU Police Department.
Campus police officers are trained to handle situations ranging from a live shooter walking around campus, to a student who’s run out of gas, said Lt. Shane Sessions, USU Police Department.
“We do regular patrol, and work with faculty, staff and students by presenting crime prevention programs so that they can utilize those things to prevent them from being victims,” Sessions said.
To prevent from becoming the victim of a crime, Sessions said it is best to do things like jog or exercise with a partner, especially at night, and avoid areas like the cemetery after dark. Sessions also said the university police offer personal safety escorts any time, day or night.
Sessions said there are several emergency phones located across campus which can be used to contact police at any time. The phones look like a 10-foot-tall gray pole with a light on top.
“The idea was to have key locations where there was immediate access for help,” Sessions said. “Before you’d have to run to a building or find someone to get police notified of a problem, and if you’re here after-hours a lot of the buildings are closed. So by having those in strategic locations, if someone has a problem or observes a problem they can immediately get our attention by pushing that,”
According to Sessions, if student’s are proactive and report crimes it keeps the crime rate down at USU.
“If a student sees suspicious behavior or activities, then they themselves are like police in that they are observing it,” Sessions said. “They should call us to come question those people to determine if it’s legitimate.”
Campus police are pushing hard to get students and faculty to report odd behavior due to the unfortunate events that occurred at Virginia Tech last year.
Before the shootings occurred, Chambers said there were numerous students on Virginia Tech’s campus who knew of the student involved and knew something was wrong. The problem he said was the information was not coming together.
Now Chambers, as well as USU Police and other school officials, are asking students and faculty to report odd behavior in hopes of preventing a similar incident at Utah State.
“This is not meant to be a punitive type of process where we are out there trying to find students so we can kick them out of school,” Chambers said. “Our role at the institution is to help provide support and services to student, and help them be successful members of their society.”
Even Chambers admits that crime is an unfortunate part of any society; however, he hopes that through efforts like the new campus safety page and USU’s police department, the university can continue to educate students in a safe environment.
–greg.boyles@aggiemail.usu.edu