This past week, tragedy struck a dormitory in the University of Central Florida as a student committed suicide. Upon his death, they found evidence he was planning an attack on one of the University’s dormitories. This created quite a stir in the United States, as colleges began questioning the safety of their own students.
When considering Southeastern’s own safety, I am confident in the abilities of our faculty who have dedicated their time to confirm our safety. Having a smaller population of on-campus residents helps to ensure that if a student was aiming to execute an act of terror on our campus, we would know about it beforehand.
I am not worried about my safety on campus. As a past resident of the campus dorms, I’ve always felt overly safe in my excursions around campus. The big blue emergency poles are there if I need them. They are there to reinforce the attentive police department and staff and to let students know we are in fact safe at this campus.
This is not the only reason to not be fearful of an attack on our campus. Federal statistics state 90 percent of bomb threats aimed at harming universities are hoaxes.
Even if something of this nature were to threaten our campus, it would have a high probability of being a joke. Even these jokes come with consequences and lead to investigations of the matter and arrests.
If you are concerned about your safety on this campus, you need to be proactive about the matter, rather than ignoring it. There are videos located on Southeastern’s own website to prepare students to be aware of potential threats on campus, such as “Shots Fired” and “Flashpoint on Campus.” These videos illustrate how to properly respond to these situations. Also, these videos are part of the SE101 curriculum, so many of us have already viewed them.
As well, we have a great behavior intervention team on campus, referred to as START (Student Threat Assessment Response Team). This team serves to further ensure our safety by meeting weekly, to not only prepare for any threats, but also to pinpoint students who may be dealing with psychological or behavioral issues, with the potential of harming our student population.
Report it if you see any suspicious behavior. Being proactive is the best tool we have to keep campus safe. Faculty members can be proactive by making sure the doors of their classrooms are shut and locked when classes are in session.
Students can keep themselves informed of the locations of emergency stations, as well as the number to the police department. It only takes a minute to save it into your phone.
If we unite our efforts, we can keep the concept of an attack on campus from becoming a reality. If you feel unsafe on campus due to an individual, call the university police department at 985-549-2222, or report the incident online at www.selu.edu/reportit.