Halloween is just around the corner, and at this time of year, we tend to matriculate towards haunted houses, horror movies, and other spooky things. People love to be scared, but one place you shouldn’t be afraid of is your college campus.

With school shooters becoming a more frequent occurrence, and with harassment on campus growing into a prominent issue, campus safety is at the forefront of everyone’s thoughts. UNF’s student government is set to address concerns about safety in an upcoming Roundtable.

A Roundtable is an in-depth survey conducted by the University and Student Affairs Committee. Senators will be tabling at Market Day and moving around campus with IPads to encourage students to respond to the survey with their experiences. These surveys are conducted once a semester on a topic that Student Government feels is extremely important to address.

This semester’s Roundtable will be conducted in November and will focus on how safe students feel on UNF’s campus during different circumstances. Questions would ask if students have ever felt unsafe while walking on campus at night, if they feel unsafe while walking to Lot 18 after dark, and if they are comfortable with walking through the Green during the day. It would also provide an opportunity for students to describe their experience with campus safety. 

The survey would also ask if students have ever used one of the Emergency Code Blue Lights around campus. According to the 2017 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report, UNF has 262 Emergency Code Blue Lights around campus that are equipped with two-way call boxes to put students in touch with UNF police if they ever feel unsafe on campus. They are located all around campus, in parking lots, around dorms, and near academic buildings.

The USA Committee decided to address this issue after hearing that many students were unaware of what to do if there is a shooter on campus. There’s a video called Run, Hide, Fight that all UNF employees are required to watch with instructions on what to do if they ever encounter a threat of this nature, but many students who aren’t employed on campus have never seen it. 

Further, harassment on campus has been a huge issue of late, especially with students reporting uncomfortable interactions with visiting campus preachers. Many students reported harassment from visitors on campus, but were unaware that they could report the interaction and of the process to do so. 

Senators also looked into passing out pamphlets during the survey period to educate more students on the safety resources available on campus. The USA Committee is conducting the survey in hopes of gauging just how safe students really feel at UNF so they can use the information to ensure students are utilizing the current safety resources and to investigate new methods of making campus safer.

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