As kids, we’ve all heard grownups say “play it safe.”
That line never disappears, even once we’ve hit the early ages of adulthood and take our first steps onto campus.
More importantly, the only way students will establish stomping grounds on a campus is if the college is safe, and has strategies to protect its students in case of an emergency.
Colleges have a colossal responsibility to keep its students, faculty and staff safe. Both students and parents expect colleges to be ready for any and all situations, especially with past incidents like the Sandy Hook school shooting and Virginia Tech massacre serving as major precedents for school safety. Emergencies, from school shootings to severe weather are often unexpected and can be crippling to institutions that are not prepared for the worse.
The first step to equipping your campus with safety strategies is to invest in safety equipment, which ranges from mobile hardware to mobile apps.
College campuses can boost their safety strategies by installing digital signage on campus to display emergency warnings and cancellations due inclement weather, shoot a mass text out to students’ mobile devices to raise awareness of a suspicious person on campus, or institute a calling system so students can drop an anonymous verbal note if a friend is in need of psychological counseling.
Other colleges may prefer an army of dome cameras watching campus grounds, a digital lock system to keep dorm doors secure, or even a rechargeable megaphone to blast verbal directions to swarms of students during an evacuation.
Chris Britton, General Manager of the In Case of Crisis App, says colleges that are equipped with appropriate safety strategies are prepared for emergency situations.
“It’s the duty of care of an institution to do everything reasonable to create a safe campus environment,” he says.
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