To our alumni,
During the last month, our campus community has been in mourning. Every day, we have felt a sense of deep sadness for the deaths of two young people who came to us with high hopes and great promise.
As we remember Joao Souza and Haley Anderson, we also begin the task of moving forward. If you are feeling anxious or distressed, you might be thinking "this isn't the same ÂÌñÉç I once attended," but I reaffirm to you that my top priority for our campus is safety. ÂÌñÉç is committed to providing a safe learning environment, and we are focusing on ways to protect our students, faculty and staff. While we already dedicate many resources to the care and protection of our students, we are redoubling our efforts to develop and implement additional measures to foster a safer campus.
As we take time to process and reflect on the past few weeks, my staff has begun an immediate review of our safety policies and procedures to ensure everyone in our community feels secure. We've already made progress on ways to further improve our campus safety and are addressing other factors beyond just physical changes to our campus infrastructure. I have directed staff to thoroughly review and seek ways to improve our approach to student mental health, conflict resolution and interpersonal violence aspects as well.
Below are some initiatives that we have identified as just our first steps in this process:
- The Alertus Enhanced Notification System will be installed. This system will give us the ability to notify people of an emergency within a few minutes through our B-alert system.
- We will increase the frequency of peer education training, including the bystander, sexual assault prevention and mental health outreach training modules. These are needed to give students strategies and skills to intervene to prevent possible sexual violence.
- Security cameras will be placed in all residential halls that don't already have them. They will be located on the main doors and the elevators and some public areas. Cameras will not be installed where privacy might be a concern.
- We will allocate more resources to mental health and conflict resolution resources. For example, we've secured money from the Parents Leadership Council for our restorative justice program – a form of alternative dispute resolution that brings students together in small groups, empowers them to resolve conflicts and focuses on the needs of all involved, providing a stronger sense of community.
- Our police will continue to train in all aspects of community policing. Recently, the entire department participated in training seminars regarding fair and impartial policing perspectives and in cultural competency training. All newly hired officers will attend these programs by the end of the summer.
These first steps are only the beginning and I pledge to make continuous efforts to ensure our campus is a place where our students, faculty, staff and alumni all feel safe and secure. Over the coming weeks, look for more updates on our progress.
Sincerely,
Harvey G. Stenger
President
May 10, 2018