Keeping yourself safe on campus - The Collegian

Keeping yourself safe on campus

Kiersten Kiene

kiene1@tritons.iowacentral.edu

As the school year goes on, students are starting to get to know more people; therefore rumors and speculations are starting to spread more and more. It seems like every day there is new ‘information’ and ‘drama’ that is happening on campus. But lately it seems as though some of these rumors and speculations are starting to impose on how safe we feel being on campus. This is not a good way to start the school year. College campuses are supposed to be safe; a place that we can call home for the next nine months of our lives; for students and staff. But when rumors are spread around making students and staff feel unsafe, it doesn’t make campus feel like a safe place to live anymore.

Vice President of security for Iowa Central, Tom Beneke, says otherwise to make everyone feel safe on campus. “[Security] is something that we don’t take a backseat to, it’s a priority for us here at Iowa Central and we’ve put a lot of resources, which I mean money, into place so that we do have a safe and secure campus...in the last two years I think we’ve spent about anywhere from one-hundred-fifty thousand to two-hundred thousand in just cameras and upgrades to make sure that we are monitoring our campus.”

Rumors a huge part as to why students are starting to feel unsafe here on campus. The more things go around by word of mouth it gets changed and skewed as to what really had happened. Tom tells how it is. “I think what you get into is what’s factual and what’s not factual. And anytime that’s reported to us the first thing that the college is going to do is get the local law enforcement involved, at that point they’re the experts as far as the investigation is concerned...we assist them in that matter, but again what’s factual and what’s not…” Campus security does their job, and looks for outside help to get the job done. However, the stories that are being told on campus may not be true; picking the right people to trust is a huge part of a student’s safety on campus.

According to the Clery Act, clerycenter.org, “Institutions are required to inform the campus community about a “significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees occurring on the campus." This means that by law the school is to report emergencies directly to the students through medias such as email, Facebook, and emergency text messages. “That warning system is in place to say don’t walk to class by yourself because this person may be out on the loose, we don’t know where he is, but this happened, so we are alerting everybody that comes to campus.” Tom explains. Therefore the school is only required to release emergency information within a timely manner. “If there was, let’s say, a rape on campus...by law if the perpetrator is still at large, we have to send out an alert. Only because the perpetrator is still at large. If the perpetrator is caught and we have the person in hand, there is no need to [send an alert.]” Tom continues on.

Although security is here to protect the campus, it is still up to the students to fully protect themselves. Although some self-protection equipment is not allowed on campus, security is still available to help. “Knives, obviously guns, anything to that sort are not allowed on campus. Even pepper spray is kind of viewed as something that can cause harm. So we don’t really allow that.” Tom clarifies. “We try very, very hard to have a very lit campus, so that people are comfortable and they can see...I always encourage students to put securities number in your phone. If you're somewhere on campus and your walking back, call them, and ask for them to walk you back. That’s what they’re supposed to do.”

Keeping yourself safe on campus ultimately comes down to the decisions that students are making for themselves. Keep yourself aware at all times and have a buddy system. Security will keep campus goers safe, as long a campus goes make the right decisions. In the end, Iowa Central is a very safe campus, and the staff is doing everything to make us feel this was. let’s keep it safe.