In light of recent events, the PSU administration and members of the student body organized an information session designed to address safety concerns on the Alumni Green on Wednesday.
“We want everyone to know that there are full-scale crisis and emergency plans in place,” said PSU President Sara Jayne Steen. President Steen addressed the crowd with information about PSU’s current plans and expressed a desire to reassure students, staff and faculty.
The purpose of the information session was to increase awareness of contingency plans that PSU has in place for any number of crisis situations. The recent tragedies at Virginia Tech, combined with the deaths of Jessica Hamlyn and Jared Barrows, have led to increased concern in the student body about campus safety.
PSU’s safety plan was last updated in January. An active shooter drill took place last November and was designed to simulate a situation like the one at Virginia Tech. More recently, a bio-terrorism drill took place last month that was supported at the Federal level.
Steen also spoke about PSU’s position in relation to the surrounding communities and the role the school plays in larger emergencies. PSU is part of a 26 town fire and medial aid agreement, they cooperate with Speare Medical Center and Dartmouth-Hitchcock medical center and are part of a communications plan with the surrounding area.
The administration is also planning on trying a new system of communication with students and faculty. Instead of relying on e-mails for mass communication, text messaging is going to be utilized. Phone numbers will be given to the school on a volunteer basis and Steen stressed that phone numbers will not be stored in a database or given out under any circumstances. “We are asking for trust; we need help to be effective,” said Steen.
Other measures PSU plans on taking to increase campus safety includes the creation of a task force whose job it will be to study the incident at Virginia Tech and see what other things PSU can learn from that situation.
“The idea for this information session came out of the Joint Cabinet. We talked about ways we can collaborate to face concerns on campus. All of us feel the high stress level among students right now,” said Jeremy Foskitt, the Trustee for the University System of New Hampshire.
Foskitt, former Student Body President Peter Laufenberg and Sarah Noyes, the President of the Spring Fling Committee, spoke briefly about promoting safety over the Spring Fling weekend. “We need to have consciousness and commitment to each other,” said Laufenberg. A common theme throughout Foskitt’s, Laufenberg’s and Noyes’ words was the importance of students exercising common sense and an attention to safety of others.
“Students in general are trying to put all this behind them. They have questions on a daily basis like, what do we do when something happens,” said Jordan Wilkinson, a first-year Anthropology major. “This provides some sense of what we are supposed to do and where we can go in case of an emergency. At the very least we need to know that.”
More information will be available on this information session and greater details of PSU’s safety plans are available on the campus website.