Brandon Ohmie
Guest Writer
One of the primary goals of Idaho State University’s faculty and staff is keeping their students safe. Since the dorm room intruder incident last year, ISU’s housing and public safety departments have made what they see as positive steps in increasing security in the dorms.
“What we’ve done is upgraded the card access in the buildings,” said Craig Thompson, director of housing. “Now in Turner and in South, students are required to have their IDs in order to access their floor or the elevator.”
The main areas of each building will remain open and available to the public because there are classes and events held there.
“These new security measures are reliant on students not bypassing the system, by propping open doors and allowing people access to those areas. Security is only as good as the people who don’t bypass the system,” said Thompson.
One of the biggest threats to security on campus is when students disregard policy and allow their friends or the general public inside those restricted areas.
The new ID system in Turner and South is the same as the system in place in the Rendezvous building. Only students are allowed to access the building after-hours, and only Rendezvous residents can access the dorms.
In addition to the new ID system, Idaho State has also made changes in weapons policy on campus. “As a general rule, weapons are not allowed on campus. However, there are some exceptions. People with the proper concealed carry permit are allowed to carry a firearm. That being said, there are still areas on campus where they are not allowed, housing being one of those areas,” said Phil Moessner, associate vice president of facility services.
Firearms are also restricted in areas where there are 1000 or more students in the same area. Those areas include the Holt Arena, Reed Gym during a sporting event and the Student Union Ballroom during an event.
“These restrictions apply to everyone who doesn’t have an enhanced concealed carry permit. The enhanced permit is a step further than the basic permit. There are eight hours of training required to obtain an enhanced permit, four hours of classroom and four hours of range training,” said Lewis Eakins, director of campus security.
If a student living on campus has a firearm that he or she would like to keep with them, he or she can store the firearm down at the Public Safety building.
One of the big changes Idaho State has made in terms of security was the introduction of the Rave Guardian cell phone app. This app allows you to notify certain individuals when you are traveling from one area of campus to another.
“You can specify where you are going on campus and how long it will take you to get there,” Eakins said. “If they don’t make it to the specified destination in that time frame, it’s going to send an alert to those people, as well as public safety. It is GPS based, giving public safety your exact location during a time of notification.”
The Rave Guardian app is supported by all major cell phone platforms.
One of the biggest ways a student can stay safe is to simply stay aware.
“The best thing someone can do is to be aware of everyone’s safety and not just their own. If something looks suspicious, pick up the phone and call 2515 and tell public safety,” said Thompson.
It’s important to be careful what you post on social media, to lock your doors, to safeguard expensive items, not to pass out your room key and to try and travel in groups of two or more in the dark.
“We say these things not because we have an unsafe campus; we have a safe campus and are consistently among the top ten safest campuses in the nation. Not because there are problems but we just want to be proactive with student’s safety,” said Eakins.
