May 6 – 12 marks Emergency Preparedness Week on Canadian calendars. Since ’96 Public Safety Canada has spearheaded this national awareness campaign to educate Canadians about emergency planning and prepare them when disaster strikes. In the last decade, the world has seen natural disasters and crises galore, and one lesson learnt is that you can never be too prepared. This year, the Canadian government prepares you for the first 72 hours after an emergency; that is, what would you do and who would you depend on for at least 3 days in the event of an emergency?
The first 72 hours is a crucial window for first responders to deal with urgent cases and the critically injured but in the meantime, you should be fully equipped to cope on your own and with your family. The initiative has made it easy for citizens to become aware of regional hazards, area-specific emergency procedures and what to do before, during and after an emergency. The EP week eToolbox developed by Public Safety Canada and its partners includes useful tips and information based on a 3-step process of “knowing the risks”, “making a plan” and “getting an emergency kit”. Here are the 3 go-to tips they provided by Public Safety Canada to ensure your safe planning:
- Know the risks – Although the consequences of disasters can be similar, knowing the risks specific to our community and our region (like what to do in the case of floods, tornados, earthquakes, storm surges, hurricanes, and technological or environmental accidents such as chemical spills and power failures) can help us better prepare.
- Make a plan – Every Canadian household needs an emergency plan. It will help you and your family know what to do if disaster strikes. We should all practice what to do in different emergency situations.
- Get an emergency kit – During an emergency, we may need to get by without power or tap water. We will all need some basic supplies (items such as three-day supply of water, non-perishable food, a flashlight, batteries, , battery-operated or wind-up radio, first aid kit, pocket knife, prescriptions, extra set of keys and money, and copies of important documents). Be prepared to be self-sufficient for at least 72 hours in an emergency.
Technology has also become an inescapable aspect of the preparation process and one that is no longer an option, but a necessity. EP week’s toolkit has highlighted the importance of using technology during a disaster to seek assistance as well as to keep in touch with family and friends. Guardly’s smartphone application, created for exactly these situations, promises a safety network of contacts (family, friends, coworkers) and the authorities while enabling a mass notification service that alerts multiple networks at once. In an emergency, users would be able to locate their contacts on a map and communicate via voice or text. This system allows users to connect with family and friends in just one tap as oppose to multiple taps, immediately reducing the single point of failure and multiplying your call for help. While some emergencies require 9-1-1 calls, we understand that not all situations fall under this category. Recognizing this, Guardly allows users to create situation, priority and location based contact groups, making the alert for assistance more efficient during emergency situations.
While the 72 Hours campaign focuses on preparing families for emergency situations, this week the Canadian Society of Safety Engineers began their annual North American Occupational Safety and Health (NAOSH) week for employers to emphasize key safety and health policies for their workplace. NAOSH week takes a similar community based approach as Emergency Preparedness week and aims for workplaces to create an aware, healthy and cooperative space for workers. Several companies across the United States, Canada and Mexico take part in envisioning and implementing a safe-minded corporate culture with fun and informative events for employees to partake in.
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Being a student with a physical disability on-campus can be a very difficult experience. Without proper accommodations, many physically disabled students may find it difficult to perform basic tasks needed to effectively complete their studies. An obvious example illustrates this point — if there are no ramps or elevators on-campus then people who are wheelchair-bound will unable to freely move about about and attend their classes.
Students may not feel safe at school when their basic needs aren’t considered. Therefore when designing new buildings and contemplating updates to older structures, schools should ensure that they consider accessibility standards so that people with physical disabilities have a way to enjoy their education and environment, just like any other student. In fact it is a moral imperative to ensure that all students feel safe at school and have an equal opportunity to learn and attend their classes. Thus, in order to preserve this equality, universities should provide accommodations that guarantees every student has equal access to its campus facilities.
Consequently, not only are these accommodations for persons with physical disabilities the ethical and right decision, but they are also mandated by federal law. Specifically the American Disabilities Act (ADA) signed into law in 1990, mandates that both public and private institutions, including colleges, must provide students with access to their facilities. In regards to Universities the law states that
“Any person that offers examinations or courses related to applications, licensing, certification, or credentialing for secondary or postsecondary education, professional, or trade purposes shall offer such examinations or courses in a place and manner accessible to persons with disabilities or offer alternative accessible arrangements for such individuals.”
To ensure that their schools comply with the American Disability Act, universities must implement the most effective technological solutions which can make their campus accessible for disabled students. Likewise, Guardly a personal safety application for smartphones, can help colleges keep their campuses in-compliance with the ADA. Specifically, should a disabled student experience difficulty accessing their campus, they can use Guardly to send off an alert to campus security and a custom group of contacts and request help. When an alert is sent the student’s GPS location is displayed and the student can communicate with their contacts through call conferencing instant messaging, and SMS.
Not only does Guardly’s core functionality improve accessibility on campus, but its features have been designed to accommodate people with physical disabilities. Specifically, Guardly’s developers realized that it was of the utmost importance to ensure that persons with disabilities could fully use the application. Therefore, Guardly’s features have been have carefully developed in order to comply with guidelines set out by the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT). These guidelines provide a rubric for companies to follow, in order to make their products accessible for disabled persons. An example of how Guardly for iPhone and Android meets these guidelines, is illustrated in its integration of Instant Messaging and SMS into the core functionality of the application. Specifically section 1194.31 (E) of the VPAT, states that “at least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require user speech shall be provided, or support for Assistive Technology used by people with disabilities shall be provided.” Guardly surpasses this requirement, by allowing its users to employ private and secure instant messaging to communicate with their contacts. Therefore, someone who is hard-of-hearing may experience an emergency on-campus and can use Guardly to notify and communicate with their campus police until a police officer, guard or paramedic arrives to assist them. By using Guardly Safe Campus and its mobile apps, which meet VPAT guidelines, schools can make their campuses more accessible for students with disabilities, helping them feel much more safe at school.
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On April 16, 2007 the Virginia Tech University experienced one of the worst school massacres in North American history, when Seung-Hui Cho, a student at Virginia Tech, killed 32 students and staff and left an additional 17 wounded. Unfortunately, much of the carnage perpetrated by Cho, could have been prevented had the university and campus security notified the student body sooner. This is because the attacks on Virginia Tech were carried out in two stages. At 9:24 am, Cho murdered two students in Virginia Tech’s residence hall and two hours and twenty minutes later Cho killed another 30 people. Consequently, after the first two murders, the university waited a full two hours before employing their Emergency Notification System in order to alert students of the shooting that had just occurred. This emergency notification was sent too late, as 20 minutes later, 30 more students were killed. Furthermore, the content of the emergency notification that was sent out to students lacked clarity and did not emphasize the urgency of the situation. Specifically the message sent out to students only stated that there had been a shooting and did not specify that those shot were murdered and that the killer had not been identified.
As a result of the incompetence of the Virginia Tech’s administration, which failed to prevent or mitigate the severity of this attack, they were forced to pay the victims’ families $3.7 million in a lawsuit settlement. Furthermore, these financial costs are only a fraction of the total amount spent by Virginia Tech on improved security and renovations, counselling services, and a public relations campaign. The total financial cost, according to the Washington Post, amounted to $42.8 million. Obviously, the financial cost cannot be compared to the human cost of this tragedy and the suffering and destruction of human life that occurred. However, it is important to factor all the costs related to this type of attack when universities implement risk management strategies in order to reduce the chances of this type of tragedy from occurring on their campuses.
Consequently, while Virginia Tech has spent millions in an attempt to provide some form of compensation for the victims and their families and improve campus security so that this type of attack does not happen again, no amount of money can be enough to compensate for the loss of life and repair Virginia Tech’s damaged public image. The loss of reputation that Virginia Tech suffered as a result of the shooting cannot be gauged through simple utilitarian calculations. Specifically, Virginia Tech is equated, in the eyes of many, with feelings of danger and fear and thus the massacre has immeasurably damaged the Virginia Tech public image. An example of how deeply the Virginia Tech reputation has been damaged is the type of content that surfaces on Google related to Virginia Tech. Specifically, when a user searches for Virginia Tech, the Wikipedia entry of the massacre is one of the first few links. This of course is just one of the thousands of articles online which give the perception that Virginia Tech is dangerous. If further research is conducted, it becomes clear that not only are these damaging articles prominently surfacing when people search for Virginia Tech online, but that hundreds of thousands of people every month are searching on Google for information related to the Virginia Tech massacre. For example, Google’s keyword tool which estimates monthly traffic volumes for a given search query shows that 135,000 people search for the term “Virginia Tech shooting” each month.
Most universities which have not had a massacre on campus of this scale and do not have this type of damaging content online nor do they have to worry about people searching for information about a terrible event in its history. Thus, Virginia Tech’s damaged reputation, the severe financial loss and most importantly the destruction of human life should be motivators to any school administrator to implement effective risk management strategies in order to prevent an attack like this from occurring on their campuses. When developing optimal risk management strategies that can reduce violent attacks on campus, it is important that universities employ the most effective security protocols and integrate cutting-edge technology into their Emergency Mass Notification Systems. Having both protocols that allow campus security staff to completely respond to emergencies and technology which allows for complex interactions between students, staff and security, can prevent another Virginia Tech-like attack from occurring.
Our company, Guardly, is deeply aware of these challenges that schools face and has developed its Safe Campus program to deliver an end-to-end solution for students and campus police to broadcast, respond and manage, and resolve emergencies quickly and efficiently on campus. Guardly is a mobile application which effectively turns your student’s smartphone into an emergency blue light phone. Using Guardly on your campus allows your students to immediately notify your campus security services and a custom group of contacts should an emergency occur. For example, in the instance of a Virginia Tech-like attack on campus, students and staff using Guardly’s GPS and location-aware technology can immediately notify campus police and a custom group of contacts with their exact location. Further, students or staff who experience an emergency can communicate with campus police and their contacts by phone call and secure instant messaging, allowing what could be dangerous situations to be easily conveyed. Using Guardly on campus can both improve the response time of first-responders and increase the quality of communication between students, staff and security personnel during these emergencies. Guardly Safe Campus can assist in mitigating the impact of an attack against human life on campus, helping to reduce both the human and financial costs which come as a result of such horrific attacks.
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Walk Safe programs on campus can drastically improve in school safety for your students. Many schools maintain some form of Walk Safe program; Harvard University being a good example of a school that has implemented an exemplary walk safe program. These programs allow any student, staff member or campus visitor to contact a program volunteer or security officer who will escort them to their vehicle, class, residence, or any other place on campus.
While campus security can help manage these programs, many of them are in fact run by student and staff volunteers. For example, Guelph University’s campus Safe Walk services allows students to sign up to volunteer through its website. The fact that many of these Walk Safe programs are staffed exclusively by volunteers from the campus community, ensures that they will be extremely sensitive to the needs of both students and staff. McGill’s Walk Safe service is a good example of a volunteer-staffed program that caters directly to the needs of students and staff. McGill’s Walk Safe program pledges that if a female student or staff member need assistance they they will do their best to dispatch a female volunteer. By sending volunteers who are of the same gender, McGill’s Walk Safe program can efficiently address gender-specific issues a student may experience on campus, such as domestic abuse.
While these Walk Safe programs can dramatically help improve campus safety there are areas where these programs could be improved. One example of how Safe-Walk programs can improve their efficiency, is by increasing the number hours which these programs operate. For example, some Walk Safe programs do not operate 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and end slightly after midnight. Other Safe Walk services do not operate during exam periods and over summer semesters. The main reason often cited for this lack of service is that the student volunteers are unable to commit to unpaid work during these off-hours. However, the problem with this is that emergencies can always occur regardless of the time of day or year. As a safety audit by York University asserts, a university campus can be dangerous at very late hours such as after campus pub nights or parties.
To address this problem, some universities such as the University of Calgary have implemented a 24 hour walk-safe program, while others, such as Queens provide security officers to escort students during a Walk Safe programs off hours. Both of these schools set great examples of how all Walk Safe programs should be structured. Walk Safe programs need both significant amount of funding and student interest in order to function effectively.
Another problem with many campus Walk Safe programs is that they are often underutilized by the student body. Specifically awareness of these Walk Safe programs are limited on many university campuses. In the safety audit conducted by York University only 60% of students and staff were aware of their Walk Safe program. That number is quite low, considering the value of this possibly life-saving service which clearly helps maintain and improve in school safety . Thus, Safe Walk services need to be more vigorously promoted within the student body.
There are many different strategies that can be used to promote a school’s Walk Safe program. Having an informative website to both promote and provide information about your schools Safe Walk services should be considered essential. For example, the Walk Safe program for Colorado State University provides students with a schedule with hours they can be escorted, relevant contact information and a map with the boundaries where the Safe-walk program operates. While, having a website is extremely important in keeping students up to date on a schools Safe Walk services, maintaining a presence on social media could also significantly help your school build awareness of it Walk Safe program. This is because the usage of social media among college students is very high and therefore building a relationships with students on web properties which they frequently use can significantly help promote your Safe Walk services. Likewise, the University of Minnesota Duluth uses this social media strategy, which should be mimicked by other campuses and has a Walk Safe program Facebook group which they use to communicate with the student body.
Besides the minimal awareness issues of Walk Safe programs among students and lack availability of Safe Walk volunteers, a serious problem with most Walk Safe programs is the relatively outdated communication technologies used by students and Walk Safe program staff. Specifically, students or staff, who need to use these Walk Safe programs, can generally contact a program volunteer through a campus emergency phone, pay phone or in some cases even their own mobile phone. Breakthroughs in mobile related technologies such as location-based GPS features and instant messaging can be used by Safe Walk Programs to foster in school safety.
Despite the different areas where is definitely room for improvement, Walk-Safe programs are one of the most important tools that can be used to improve and maintain a safe campus.
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Keeping your data safe online is a very important safety topic and vital to protecting your personal safety. You should be aware if your data is being made public online and understand the consequences that could result from this exposure.
Recently there has been a big scare in regards to online privacy. A smartphone application called “Girls Around Me” pulled publicly available information from the social networking applications Foursquare and Facebook to create a virtual stalking app. This app allows men to access publicly available check-in information from female Foursquare users and combine this data with personal and publicly available information from Facebook, such as profile pictures and relationship statuses. The reason this application so blatantly breaches privacy is that the women whose check-ins and profiles are displayed did not consent to make this information available through the app. Consequently, in the wrong hands of someone looking to inflict harm, this application could be dangerous; this grievous breach of privacy could lead to sexual assaults and threaten the personal security of women app users.
To prevent this threat to the personal safety of both women and men, changes with the way people interact with technology need to occur. These changes must take place on both an institutional and personal level. On an institutional level, social networks need to prevent these types of applications from accessing personal location data for the wrong reasons. Additionally social media companies need to make the privacy settings on their applications more transparent and easier to understand. Likewise, on a personal level women (and men) need to better understand the information they make publicly available on social networks. In the case of Girls Around Me, Foursquare banned the application from using its API to access its users check-in information. However, women who use social networking websites and mobile technology cannot just rely on technology companies to protect their personal safety by preventing these malicious applications from being developed. With thousands of applications submitted to the various app stores on a daily basis, women who fear being stalked should strongly consider educating themselves about the private data they may be publicly sharing through social networks and social media. Specifically, women need to understand the privacy settings on the various applications they use and know exactly what type of information they feel comfortable sharing, in order to improve their personal security.
Despite the dangers of applications, such as Girls Around Me, which use location-based technology and social media for malicious purposes; the vast majority of apps use these types of breakthrough technologies in order to improve the human condition. An example of an application that uses social media and breakthrough technologies to improve people’s personal security, is Guardly. Guardly is a location-based personal-safety application that allows users to instantly notify a custom group of contacts, with their exact location, should they find themselves in an emergency. Unlike these malicious applications, such as Girls Around Me, which deceitfully exploits the privacy of its users, Guardly’s users must authorize and download the application in order for it to get access to their information. Furthermore Guardly accesses this location-based information only during an emergency, when the ability to know a user’s location could be life-saving. Thus, unlike, Girls Around Me, which puts women in danger, Guardly keeps both men and women safe.
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When you enter university it is important that you always remain safe at school. We’ve composed 25 college safety tips which you can help keep you safe on campus .
1. Do not under any circumstances drink and drive, or enter a vehicle where the driver is drunk. In 2009 there were 10,839 fatalities as a result of drunk driving in the United States.
You can help keep yourself and your friends safe at school by volunteering to be a designated driver should your friends plan to drink. Doing this will help improve in school safety for the people you care about. At college parties know your limit and drink responsibly. Don’t be a statistic.
2. Never leave your drink unattended at a college party, bar or club.
If you’ve left your drink unattended and have any inclination that someone may have slipped a date rape drug into your drink, otherwise called a roofie, just buy another one. It’s well worth the couple bucks.
3. Don’t do drugs. Most universities have strict policies for drugs on campus and if you are concerned about issues related to college safety you should always say no to drugs.
4. If your classmate asks you for a ride home, it may make sense to refuse if you do not know the person well or they make you feel uncomfortable.
5. Familiarize yourself with your university’s in school safety policies and procedures.
You can usually find information about these safety policies on your school’s website. For example, UCLA has a detailed page on its website dedicated to educating its students about campus safety and security.
6. If you are worried about your safety at night, don’t walk alone on-campus.
Most schools feature walk-safe programs, whereby you can request to be escorted by a security officer, school staff, or another student to your house or car. Your campus security are there to help improve campus safety and you should not hesitate to use their services.
7. Familiarize yourself with the location of outdoor on-campus emergency phones.
These phones connect you directly to your campus security services. Many schools, such as, Hobart William Smith College, have a map on their website with the locations of on-campus emergency light phones. These phones are sometimes equipped with video cameras and loud speakers.
8. Carry a mobile phone so you can notify your contacts, campus-security or the police should you find yourself in an emergency.
9. In addition to carrying a mobile phone, you can also download location-based, personal-safety applications such as Guardly.
If you are in an emergency Guardly allows you to immediately notify a custom group of contacts, the police and in many cases campus security with your exact location. Additionally, you can communicate with your contacts, during an emergency, through instant messaging, conference-calling and SMS, helping to improve in school safety.
10. Follow your instincts. If a situation doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.
11. Have a friend or family member who you can always get a hold of to help you in case of an emergency. This is one of the most simple yet effective on campus safety strategy’s.
12. Another important on campus safety tip is to tell a friend and/or family member where you are going and notify them when you arrive safely at your destination.
13. Leave your campus party or pub night if it gets too wild, or if people are getting overly drunk and aggressive.
Attending a campus party or pub night that becomes too wild could be dangerous. As a newsletter from Indiana University states: about 1 in 4 women experience unwanted sexual intercourse during their college years and many times this sexual abuse occurs during or after an on-campus party.
14. Don’t pick fights with others on-campus and if provoked walk away or inform the proper authorities.
15. If a person on campus threatens, harasses or in any way causes you harm, immediately inform your campus security and/or the police.
You can use Guardly to immediately contact campus security services or the police and communicate with them through conference-calling, instant messaging or SMS.
16. If you witness a crime being committed on campus, contact campus-security. Don’t be silent if you happen upon a crime committed on-campus, instead inform the proper authorities and help improve campus safety for everyone.
For example, there are many organizations, such as Crime Stoppers of Canada or Crime Stoppers USA, that you can contact to report a crime you may have witnessed. Many of these organizations allow you to remain anonymous so you do not have to fear for your safety.
17. If you are living in an apartment or in a house off-campus, make sure you have smoke detectors installed and that your residence meets all safety regulations.
18. Familiarize yourself with the fire exits and escape routes in your school. So in the event of an emergency, such as a fire or terrorist attack, you are prepared.
19. If you have sex make sure to always use protection in order to prevent STD’s and unwanted pregnancies.
It is estimated that 1 in 4 students will contract an STD during college so it is important to always use protection if you are sexually active.
20. Have a yearly visit with your campus physician. Seeing a doctor regularly is important to keeping you healthy and safe.
21. Make an appointment with your school therapist should you feel emotionally unstable. This is an important yet overlooked part of college safety.
22. While in school do not overwork yourself and exercise regularly in order to deal with stress related to your studies.
Stress among college students is very common. According to a study by the Associated Press of college students, over 80% of students sometimes or frequently experience stress. It is therefore important to exercise and keep healthy, especially during your studies.
23. Try your best to get a good night sleep before class.
24. Do your best to stay on well-lit paths while walking through campus at night.
25. If you feel threatened on campus, consider carrying pepper spray (as long as it’s legal in your jurisdiction).
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Preventing crimes and making sure students feel safe on campus are two of the most important objectives of any campus security organization. We at Guardly have composed a list of the top 25 measures that college security staff can employ to maintain in school safety.
1. If you do not already have a mass notification system then ensure you install one as soon as possible.
Mass notification systems are highly prevalent among colleges and universities across North America. For example, a study conducted by Siemens of 77 high-learning institutions found that every single one had some type of mass notification system. MNS systems help prevent crime and we at Guardly recommend that security professionals investigate how they benefit campus safety.
2. When the school year starts send a mass notification to every student with the contact information for campus security services.
3. Make sure health facilities are up to date and that there is a campus physician on-staff at all times.
The incidence of contagious diseases being spread on health facilities is startling. In fact, according to the Center for Disease Control there are 7 million infections and 99,000 deaths annually in the United States during hospital visits. Therefore, having extremely clean and modern campus health facilities with a campus doctor available 24/7 will improve the health of your whole college.
4. Make note of the places on campus where the most crimes occur and increase your security presence in those targeted areas.
This increase may include extra security patrols and/or the installation of cctv cameras and emergency phones. Many universities realize the importance of increasing their security presence on university campuses. For example, a report by Purdue university recommends doubling the amount of security cameras on-campus.
5. In order to increase in school safety, ensure that the school administrators and professors are kept fully up-to-date on all criminal activity on campus.
The staff and professors of your universities are in many cases on campus more than your school’s students and as a matter of personal-safety, they have a right to know if there is a crime committed on campus. Additionally, they are instrumental in managing your school and communicating with the student population. Therefore, keeping them up-to-date on all criminal activity on campus will help them craft school policy, administer budgets and communicate with students, in such as way as to always keep in mind concerns about criminal acts on campus.
6. Make sure to employ the latest technology to protect your campus. Mobile applications such as Guardly can help your students feel safe at school. Using Guardly, your students can immediately notify on-campus security, with their location, should they experience an emergency.
Venture-backed, Guardly has partnerships across North America and has featured such as the Financial Post, Yahoo News and the Huffington Post. Guardly provides a very cost-effective method of turning your student’s smartphone into a blue light emergency phone which will exponentially improve college campus security.
7. Organize self-defense classes on campus.
For example, the university of Ottawa has an on-campus self-defense program called Rape Aggression Defense. This program, which costing $20, is affordable for all students, specializes in teaching women self-defense in case of an attack on campus. The program is well integrated with school counselling services and the program instructors are well versed in the sensitivities towards students who may have been survivors of sexual violence.
8. Promote a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment, drugs, and other common on campus crimes.
9. Encourage female students to always keep pepper spray in case of an attack.
10. Ensure there is proper lighting on paths and secluded sections on campus.
Having well lit paths is very important to maintaining and improving college campus security. For example, A university of Minnesota study of its Duluth campus suggested that improving the lighting systems around certain targeted areas around campus could help reduce crime.
11. Check to make sure your campus’ wifi is always working so students can use personal safety applications, such as Guardly, in case of an emergency.
The internet and mobile technologies have provided people with better ways to keep safe on campus. Location-based personal safety applications such as Guardly are committed to take advantage of these technological breakthroughs.
12. Frequently inspect your cctv cameras and emergency phones, ensuring your security equipment is working properly.
13. Provide top-notch training for new hires and continuing education for your more experienced security staff, in order to have well trained security personnel who can effectively combat crime on-campus.
14. In compliance with the Clearly Act make sure all crimes are reported to the proper authorities and that the campus community is made aware of all crimes committed.
Jeanne Clearly was a 19 year old freshman who was raped and murdered on campus in 1986. In response the this heinous crime the federal government introduced a bill that demands universities gather and report all crimes committed on, or near the school’s campus.
15. Encourage respect for cultural diversity on campus. Develop cross-cultural learning opportunities for students and implement a zero-tolerance policy for hate crimes.
16. Maintain a security escort or a walk-safe program for students walking alone at night in order to improve in school safety.
York university has a program called goSAFE which is staffed completely by university students. This program allows anyone on campus between the hours of 6:00pm to 2:00am to be safely escorted by a student to their class, residence, vehicle or any other place on campus. Using Guardly’s personal-safety application can help improve your walk-safe program. This is because a student who feels the need to be escorted on-campus, can instantly contact your walk-safe program and you will immediately know the student’s location, increasing the efficiency and speed at which the student can be reached by one of your staff members.
17. Provide a special ombudsman who can address issues such as sexual harassment and gender discrimination.
18. Ensure your campus complies with your school’s or your local government’s accessibility standards, including the American Disability Act, by making sure your campus is accessible for people with disabilities. To meet these requirements, ensure that you have installed necessary equipment including ramps, elevators, emergency phones or virtual emergency phones like Guardly.
The American Disability Act states that “ no individual may be discriminated against on the basis of disability” and this type of accommodation is applicable to post-secondary institutions. Guardly helps you keep in compliance with the ADA because it provides your students with a powerful way to instantly communicate with you should a disabled student experience an emergency on campus related to their disability.
19. Create and instill a harmonious relationship with local businesses and residential neighbourhoods close to campus. This could include informing the local community should on campus crimes occur and fostering dialogue with representatives of local businesses and neighbourhoods.
For example, Boston University has a top notch community outreach program. Its mission statement exemplifies the program’s goal to improve their community. Specifically it states that “The Community Service Center aims to provide the Boston University community with opportunities to address and improve the critical concerns of Greater Boston” This initiative has strengthened the ties between Boston University and the local community and is clearly beneficial to campus safety.
20. Increase your college campus security presence during events where crimes are more likely to occur, such as heated political demonstrations or your school’s pub night.
21. Maintain close ties with your school’s student council ensuring that you keep them up to date on all campus security matters.
22. Conduct yearly audits and always look for ways to improve in school safety.
The Clearly Act mandates that campus security professionals compile annual statistics on crimes committed on campus. Consequently, personal safety applications such as Guardly can help you compile the data needed for your reports. Specifically, when a student sets off a Guardly alert you will immediately receive their exact location, medical profile and be able to maintain constant communication throughout the emergency. Therefore, using Guardly increases your ability to monitor and respond to crimes committed on campus, dramatically improving your data collection and reporting schemes.
23. Have a zero-tolerance policy for racial profiling amongst your college security staff.
24. Install large emergency signs and maps around campus for students and staff, in order to help them feel safe on campus and provide instructions to students in case of an emergency.
25. Make sure all fire alarms and smoke detectors are working and up to date. Conduct yearly fire drills in order to ensure that your campus community is well prepared for any type of emergency.
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Recently there has been a hashtag that has gone viral called #ididnotreport. The hashtag is being used by sexual assault survivors to tweet that they did not report a sexual assault they survived. We stand with these survivors and commend their courage. In order to honour their bravery we have created an infographic which traces the life of this deeply moving hashtag.
Sincerely, the Guardly team
infographic created with visual.ly
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To combat depression in college students it is vital that universities create safety protocols to ensure that students receive immediate medical assistance should their mental state spiral downward. This is one of the most important college health issues and most universities have on-campus physicians and psychiatrists, who can help students overcome severe outbreaks of depression. To treat depression in college students, many universities provide accommodations should the student be unable to attend class due to severe depression. However, despite the accommodations and health-care access that many universities offer students with depression, the current provisions adopted by most schools do not provide adequate protections when an outbreak of depression turns into a medical emergency.
The unfortunate reality is that symptoms for depression can increase and decrease in severity at a moments notice and could demand immediate medical care and/or hospitalization. When a student’s depression leads to a medical emergency, there are currently two primary methods they can use to contact first responders. First, students can use campus emergency phones, which are generally located inside buildings and sparsely along university campus paths; these emergency phones connect students directly to campus security by phone call. Second, students experiencing medical emergencies can use a landline or mobile phone to call 911. The major problem with both of these methods is that they do not provide first responders with important information about the student’s medical illness or prescribed medications, except for what the student may have been able to communicate during the emergency call. Consequently, a student who is making an emergency call due to severe depression cannot be relied upon to convey the precise nature of his or her condition. For example, they may have fainted, become disoriented or could be suicidal. Furthermore, given the fact that many students who attend university live away from home, contacting their families or friends, who may have a better understanding of their condition, could prove to be difficult, if not impossible.
The inability to gather information from a student who is experiencing an emergency, demands a breakthrough technological solution that can immediately provide a student’s medical information to first responders.
Enter Guardly, a venture-backed Toronto start-up with a cutting edge application that solves this and many other college health issues. Guardly, through its Safe Campus Program, offers campus police and public safety departments a game-changing platform to immediately gather medical information about a student undergoing a mental health emergency. Guardly allows students to fill their medical information into a profile so that first responders have a detailed medical history of any student who uses the application. Therefore, when a student with a severe outbreak of depression sets off an emergency alert with Guardly, first responders will know the student’s exact health profile and will be able to provide improved, potentially life-saving treatment.
Guardly’s mobile application can be used by a student experiencing an emergency to instantly contact campus security, emergency services, and custom groups of people who will be informed when an emergency alert is triggered. Students who have a mental illnesses can group people who may have a specialized understanding of their condition, such as a their family physician, psychiatrist or other mental health practitioner. These people, who may be well acquainted with the student’s medical condition, can offer potentially life-saving information to first responders and university health officials. Depression in college students is a serious mental health issue and Guardly provides schools with a cost-effective mobile emergency response solution that can really help save lives.
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On-campus sexual assault is an issue that every public safety department at universities must contend with. According to a study of undergraduate students by the Archives and Pediatrics of Adolescent Medicine, 53% of women had experienced physical and/or sexual violence and the hands of their partner. However, when a women is raped on a campus, it not only harms the survivor of this horrendous crime, but leads to all women not feeling safe at school, where the rape occurred. Unfortunately, when sexual assaults happen on campus, many female students tend to live in fear that a perpetrator could be lurking around the next corner. This assertion is not hyperbolic ranting, but rather a concrete reality that women across North America undergo during their college years.
Preventing these sexual assaults and helping women feel safe at school, clearly should be a major concern for any university public safety official. To prevent these heinous crimes and to create a campus culture that allows women to feel safe, law enforcement at universities must develop and invest in the best communication tools, which can help reduce and prevent rapes from occurring under their watch. Creating an effective two-way communication system between the student body and on-campus security services will both help women feel safe at school and provide quick access to help should they feel threatened.
To prevent sexual assault and other forms of campus crimes, most universities currently use emergency light phones. Emergency light phones are land-line phones which are scattered throughout college campuses and provide students with instant direct access to on-campus security. They allow students to instantaneously contact campus security, helping to improve in school safety.
While these emergency light phones allow women to feel safe at school and prevent sexual assaults, they do not heavily implement breakthrough technologies such as smartphone technology. Therefore, these emergency phones are not nearly as effective at preventing on-campus sexual assault as they could be. More specifically, emergency light phones are land-line phones and are located in fixed-positions on campus. If a woman feels threatened on campus, depending on her location, she may not have immediate access to an emergency light phone and its communication features. This presents a serious accessibility problem to campus police and public safety officials at schools, since women may not be able to reach them adequately during an attack or times of distress.
With the high adoption rate of smartphones among college students, public safety administrators now have an opportunity to implement a more effective emergency light phone solution to prevent sexual assault. For example, Guardly, provides universities with a Safe Campus Program which effectively turns a student’s smartphone into an emergency light phone. If a woman on campus feels threatened they can use Guardly to immediately contact and communicate with on-campus security and police, regardless of their location. Guardly uses GPS, cell-tower location and wifi hotspot locations to ensure the most accurate location positioning possible with your smartphone. When you use your mobile phone to call campus police, they will not know your location. Alternatively, when someone uses a land-line emergency light phone, the on-campus security or police only have access to the location of the phone which was used.
Sexual assaults may occur in many different locations or places on campus, and may include a chase or full-scale abduction, which would mean the victim and attacker would continually change locations. These rapid location changes make it very difficult for authorities to locate the attack when an emergency light phone is used to announce the emergency incident. Guardly solves this problem because it tracks the victim’s location using their smartphone’s GPS functionality and helps campus police to locate the victim regardless of the their location. By taking advantage of mobile technology, Guardly improves in school safety and reduces the number of on-campus sexual assaults by bringing emergency light phones into the 21st century.
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