A roundtable with Campus Safety Services was held on Wednesday.
Capt. Eileen Bradley and Deputy Director Charles Leone, of Campus Safety Services, spoke with members of Temple Student Government on Wednesday, Nov. 30. in Barton Hall.
Having been invited by TSG Vice President of External Affairs Elliot Griffin to address students on safety issues, Bradley and Leone touched on the TU Alert and TU Advisory policies, as well as the TUrDoor and OWLoop shuttles.
TSG has received complaints from students over the past month regarding inconsistencies in the safety division’s services and mounting confusion about those services.
Leone said he believes that when the university reported an increase in crime on and off campus from 2009 to 2010, as it is required to do by federal law, people became more frightened.
“The reality is, crime did go up, but the perception of crime was worse,” Leone said.
Bradley said she believes there are high expectations from students, too.
“We can always do better,” she said.
Currently, Campus Safety Services employs about 300 people part-time and full-time. About 70 security persons work inside residence halls and other Temple buildings, while Temple Police has about 130, which includes sworn men and women, officers, and detectives. The Philadelphia Police Departments also works with Temple officers, and Temple has hired six Philadelphia officers to work specifically with the university’s force.
Since the Nov. 9 robbery of a Temple student near the Bell Tower, Campus Safety Services added personnel to its patrols and changed some patrol patterns, Leone said. Because the student who was robbed said he had problems calling Campus Safety from a blue emergency phone, the office also checked each of the 68 phones on campus, and found some were not up to working order.
“Some are solar powered, from when the university wanted to go green,” Leone said. “Some have a battery. So if the battery runs out, they don’t work.”
Leone said many of the phones are to be rewired, as well.
Bradley also said the TUrDoor shuttle has expanded its boundaries of where it will take students from campus. The area borders 20th Street to the west, Girard Avenue to the south, 5th Street to the east, and north to Cumberland Street.
“It’s an area in which we can respond, if we have to,” Bradley said.
Bradley specified that TUrDoor does not take students to campus if they are not already on the property.
“It’s really for getting you home,” she said.
Some students asked TSG members when, and under what circumstances, the university issues TU Alert and TU Advisory messages.
“I think students confuse those messages for news,” said TSG Student Body President Colin Saltry.
Leone distinguished TU Alerts as information the university wants students to act on, while TU Advisory notifications contain timely information that does not require specific instructions for students to follow.
“We’re trying to figure out a better way to get news to people,” Leone said.
TSG members debated the efficiency of phone apps versus email and social media messages.
“Get a Facebook page and link it to your website,” Kimberly Stanislaw, TSG office manager, suggested. “Our generation, we use Facebook as more of a Google search.”
Campus Safety Services will put posters detailing shuttle times and other information in the TECH Center, Library and Student Center.
Amelia Brust can be reached at abrust@temple.edu.
Be the first to comment