Public Safety urges awareness education to keep students safe
Chief Savalas Kidd discussed the importance of safety tools like blue lightboxes for students’ safety. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Alexa Balaban | Contributing Writer
This night a year ago was an evening to remember.
As the night came, an anonymous source, a senior at Dayton, walked up to a sight they would have never expected. Looking ahead on the student’s walk home there were two women passed out.
The two students were on the cold street 10 feet away from the emergency blue light phones when panic set into their brains. Not knowing what to do, the source called an EMS in training.
The senior, hoping they would be able to help the two girls passed out on the concrete unaware of what was happening, decided on making a move. The senior and EMS-in-training realized the gravity of the situation and called Public Safety.
The senior, returning from a fun night out at the bar, was faced with trauma about last year’s event of the passed-out women. Much has come from the unexpected situation, which has shed light on the campus safety here at the University of Dayton.
Public Safety has been working on improvements since situations like this one have transpired. The safety on campus continues to help the community grow and improve.
Chief Savalas Kidd, assistant vice president and chief of police at the University of Dayton Department of Public Safety, discussed campus safety regarding emergency blue lightboxes in March.
“The safety of our campus community is our number one priority, regardless of the time of day,” Kidd said.
The chief of police helped to clarify how UD informs the community on public safety including educating students on the blue phones, crime prevention and answering unknown questions based on a survey sent out to the community.
“At the beginning of each year, we send a Flyer Aware back-to-school message highlighting some of those crime prevention and safety tips. In addition to that message, UD Public Safety posted a video with crime prevention and safety tips,” Kidd said.
Following the question regarding the study, he answered the question on a conducted survey,
Based on the campus poll, around 65% of students feel safe in the afternoon. Along with that, 65% of students said they could pinpoint a blue light.
A question asked by the campus poll and interviews conducted by anonymous undergraduate sources, stated the top concern for using blue light emergency phones or calling Public Safety is, “How will I know my safety will come first instead of getting into trouble when calling campus police?”
In response to the questions, Kidd said: “Students should absolutely put the safety and security of themselves and their classmates first. According to the UD student code of conduct, students can be eligible for medical amnesty.”
“We will continue to educate our students on crime prevention and safety tips to help them feel secure all day, every day, including how to contact Public Safety and the locations of the blue light emergency phones,” Kidd said.
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