A Letter About Campus Safety
April 20, 2007
Dear Keuka Parents,
The tragedy at Virginia Tech has affected all of us in higher education, and I am sure that as a parent of a Keuka College student you are wondering about your son or daughter’s safety. Please be assured that safety is first and foremost on the minds of our faculty and staff here at Keuka, and we are constantly evaluating our campus safety. I would like to describe for you the many safety initiatives that were in operation prior to the Virginia Tech situation, and also those that we are exploring for future implementation. You can access our safety record on our web site, www.keuka.edu, by reading our annual Clery Report, which details crime statistics that we report to the federal government.
Existing Safety and Emergency Response Initiatives:
- Blue Lights If you walk around campus you will notice our “blue lights” which provide a means for students to call directly to the local 911 emergency dispatcher without having to dial any numbers. We regularly check these devices to make sure they are fully operational.
- Residence Hall Security All of the residence halls at Keuka College are locked 24/7, and access is available only to residents and their guests who must sign-in at the front desk or with the Resident Director (RD) in that building. Resident Assistants (RAs) monitor access to the buildings at all times and are aided by front-desk workers during the evenings and nighttimes.
- Emergency On-Call System Every day and night we have an RD on duty who visits each of the residence halls and responds to incidents across campus as needed. That Duty-RD works in concert with a Duty-RA in each residence hall to monitor the buildings and respond to emergencies. In addition, we have a senior student affairs staff member assigned to duty each night. The Duty-RD communicates with the on-call administrator when issues arise, and quite often the administrator will respond by coming to the location on campus that is experiencing difficulty. Four of the five administrators live on campus, thus ensuring a quick response.
- RA and RD Training Our Residence Life staff receive many hours of training on safety, first-aid and CPR. They know the protocols to use in case of any incidents – whether fire, weather conditions, or violent behavior. RA’s and RD’s work collaboratively with our Protective Services Officers and many times will train together.
- Protective Services Our campus is patrolled 24/7 by certified Protective Services officers, who are in constant contact with Yates County Sheriff’s Deputies, State Police, local fire departments, and First Responder EMT’s. In addition to the Keuka Park and Branchport EMT’s, we usually have 3 or 4 student EMT/firemen living on campus who are trained and certified as First Responders. This ensures a quick response to medical emergencies.
- Emergency Disaster Plan Keuka College has been updating and expanding its Emergency Disaster plan over the past 18 months. Such a plan establishes a team that makes key decisions in the event of an emergency, and provides that team with protocols to follow for certain types of disasters. A plan such as this is always being adjusted and improved, and we have been expanding the section dealing with health emergencies or pandemics which might cause us to quarantine parts of or all of campus if we were so affected. We are also reviewing and refining our Crisis Response plan that deals with the aftermath of a campus emergency on a more personal basis by our Counseling Center staff, Peer Counselors and Student Affairs staff. On February 28, 2007 our Emergency Disaster Response Team met for a 3-hour training exercise designed to familiarize our team with the protocols in the plan and to apply them to a real-life scenario in a “tabletop exercise.” In addition to our campus team, local law enforcement personnel took part in the exercise so that they would also know more about our crisis response plan and the people involved.
- Community Policing Initiative Approximately four months ago, Student Affairs staff initiated conversations with the Sheriff’s Office of Yates County in order to establish a community policing effort on our campus. The objective of this effort was to create a regular presence of Sheriff’s Deputies on campus. Such a presence would allow students to become acquainted with the officers, and for the officers to become familiar with the campus and the needs of our students. The Sheriff would establish a “substation” in our Protective Services office to help provide protection to the campus, Keuka Park and the surrounding area. While on campus, the deputies would sometimes accompany our Protective Services officers on their campus rounds. This increased presence of Sheriff’s deputies would allow a faster and more effective response to dangerous situations on campus. Ironically, this community policing initiative was scheduled to begin the very week of the Virginia Tech massacre. We are excited about this collaborative effort between the College and local law enforcement, and believe it will improve the safety of our students, faculty and staff. RAs and RDs have been alerted to this new initiative and are supportive of this effort.
Post VA Tech Actions:
- On Tuesday morning following the Virginia Tech tragedy, the senior administrative team met with our Director of Protective Services to discuss the incident and the university response to it. That discussion centered on our Emergency Disaster Crisis Plan and its applicability to a situation like that which occurred at Virginia Tech.
- On Wednesday afternoon, 4/18, we convened a meeting of the Emergency Response Team to study the incident, our plan, and the response of the Virginia Tech administration. We concluded that we need to develop some additional protocols, and that communication systems are vital to a successful plan. College staff are now working to develop the needed protocols and studying the possible additions to our communications capacity.
- One promising improvement to our communications is the development of a system to instantaneously phone and text-message all members of the community regarding emergency information. I am working with a vendor of a service that would be appropriate for Keuka.
- Student Affairs staff are also analyzing our Crisis Response Plan for individuals and making sure that it dovetails effectively with our Emergency Disaster Plan.
- College officials are also studying the security processes at other colleges and universities to find possible improvements to our plans and protocols. We will be constantly searching for new and better ways to provide the safest possible environment for our students, faculty and staff.
The killing of so many innocent young people and dedicated faculty at Virginia Tech is indeed a horrific event. The silver lining in this very black cloud is that it has prompted many people, both here at Keuka College and around the nation, to examine carefully our policies, procedures and practices relative to campus safety. With open campuses such as Keuka, it may be impossible to guarantee that no such tragedy could occur here, but we can work to significantly reduce the chance of that happening. We are dedicated to that goal and we welcome parental & student input into our safety plans. You have entrusted to us your most valuable possession, your son or daughter, and we take very seriously our responsibility to keep our students safe. I hope that you will join me in praying for the folks at Virginia Tech, and in encouraging your sons or daughters to be ever vigilant of their safety. With best wishes, I remain
Sincerely yours,
James W. Blackburn
Vice President for Student Development
And Dean of Students