Campus safety challenges range from risky behaviors to natural disasters
Keeping everyone safe on campus is a major concern and challenge for university officials. Threats range from icy sidewalks and tornadoes to someone intent on harming himself or herself or others.
“We’re a small city. We have on any given day something like 30,000 people floating around our campus and it’s an open campus,” said Anil Gollahalli, vice president and general counsel at the University of Oklahoma.
OU and Oklahoma State University have campus police forces with more than 30 officers who encourage students, faculty and staff, “If you see something, say something.”
After the April 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech that left 33 people dead, students lined up to report concerns about their roommates, said Lee Bird, vice president of student affairs at OSU.
“We work to make it easy and reassure them that it is the best thing for the community,” Bird said. Faculty call her regularly to report, “Hey, I’m concerned about this kid.”
Officials talk with the students — who may be off their medication or may just need someone to talk to about a problem in their life. They make referrals and follow up.
“It’s usually a very good outcome,” Bird said.
OU students, faculty and staff may have a variety of personal issues that cause distress.
“We try to get in front of issues before they escalate,” Gollahalli said.
“That’s so critical on our campus. We have high incidents of mental health issues in the state of Oklahoma, and the university is no different than the general population.”
It begins with a behavioral intervention team assessing the situation. Perhaps someone needs financial assistance or needs counseling about a breakup with a significant other.
“Most of the time that’s where we can resolve issues. Every once in a while we’ll find somebody that has become belligerent … and now we have to take some disciplinary action,” Gollahalli said.
The Threat Assessment Response Committee deals with situations that might escalate and uses input from every department involved with the person to form a comprehensive view. It may be handled as a student conduct issue or a police issue.
If it rises to a true emergency — say the situation escalates and the person brings a weapon to campus — the police generally take the lead, Gollahalli said.
“We won’t catch them all,” Bird said. “That’s the scary, hard part. Somebody may know something and they just choose not to say anything.”
Risky behavior
“There are a lot of threats out there,” Bird said. “Drugs and alcohol and weapons are my big three.”
Students are told about the dangers of excessive drinking, the relationship between drug and alcohol use and academic failure, and how a DUI can haunt them forever, Bird said.
“Our responsibility is to educate people and we do that,” she said. “We offer great training. We try to touch those bases. But, in the moment, it comes down to judgment and how students perceive their safety and how much they value that. We do the very best we can to try to keep them safe, but they have to be part of that formula.”
Six in 10 students behave well and make good choices, but about 39 percent engage in binge drinking, Bird said. Tragedies that result from that behavior often don’t impact other students who think “that won’t happen to me.”
She said being away from home and having the freedom to do what they want is hard for some students to handle.
“It’s a matter of what chances they’re willing to take and the availability of drugs or alcohol and what they’re willing to risk,” Bird said.
“The best way to stay safe is to stay the heck out of the house parties or choose not to drink or drink in moderation, and we talk about all those things,” Bird said.
Drug and alcohol use sometimes lead to acquaintance rape, she said. “Knowing someone, taking a chance, taking a risk and sometimes that
goes badly.”
Sexual assault
One in 5 undergraduate women reported they were sexually assaulted during their time at college in a nationwide study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Far fewer sexual assaults were reported by students at OU and OSU during 2015, the latest data available.
At OU, a total of 12 forcible sex offenses were reported on and off campus. Sex offenses reported on and off campus at OSU totaled 9 rapes and 8 incidents of fondling.
“People are hesitant to report sexual violence and other issues,” Bird said. “There’s a lot of reasons why people may not report.”
Among them are “I don’t want to get him in trouble” and self-blame, she said.
Incidents of sexual violence generally involve people who know one another, Gollahalli said. “Both sides get themselves in a situation where they do something that they didn’t want to do,” he said.
Both schools have designated sexual assault advocates to give students who contact them advice and information. They talk about their options and facilitate decision-making. It’s the student’s decision whether to report the incident to campus officials and/or police.
The schools also have personal safety apps students can download on their cellphones — Guardian and Orange Shield — which provide several safety features.
Emergency plans
“Communication in a crisis is one of the key spots,” Gollahalli said. “You can’t prepare for everything. Decisions have to be made by an executive, and those decisions ... have to be communicated out.”
Notifications can be as routine as classes being canceled due to weather, or much more urgent. Students and faculty may be told to evacuate a building or to shelter in place because of a threat.
“Having an official, trustworthy source of information from the administration is critical because you are battling with bits and pieces of information that others may be floating out there,” Gollahalli said.
Both OU and OSU have an extensive communication system that uses email, text messages, public address systems, social media, local media and the school’s website.
In May 2013, OU hired Lisa Teel as emergency preparedness manager. She began by conducting a risk vulnerability assessment specific to the university environment.
Five hazards were found to have a high risk of occurring on campus — snow and ice storms; civil disturbance/active shooter; flooding, internal or external; tornado/ severe thunderstorm; and fire.
The next five hazards have a moderate risk of occurring — mass casualty event; bomb threat/ suspicious package; death of a student; hostage situation; and public health emergency.
Preparing for emergencies includes developing planned response for specific threats and specific buildings and for a general evacuation, Teel said. A structural assessment was done of all buildings to determine which provide safe refuge during a tornado, and who should go where.
Continuity plans also are a part of emergency preparation. If a tornado took out several buildings, what steps would be taken to keep the university going?
When OU hosts big crowds — like a home football game or commencement — visitors will see the presence of local and federal law enforcement agencies, but what they probably won’t notice are four or five licensed meteorologists on site, Teel said.
Monitoring the forecast days ahead of an event, and during it, helps officials make decisions whether to cancel or move it. Events like Girls State or fraternity and sorority rush can mean lots of people are on hand who aren’t familiar with campus. An emergency plan is essential, Teel said.
Colleges and universities are a part of the federal emergency management response system, just like municipalities, counties and states, Gollahalli said.
“We can coordinate with them in an emergency, from a shooter on campus to a tornado,” he said.