Ashley Larson

Contributing Writer 

On Oct. 27, five gunshots were fired on the ESU campus. On Nov. 6, a report was made to the police about a possible weapon on campus. On Nov. 5, a person posted about a school shooting on social media Yik Yak.

Amid all these risks, how should ESU students feel about their safety?

Frank Gay, director of campus security, is working on a campus security and risk assessment.

“We look at what are the risks we’re faced with, what are our vulnerabilities, we prioritize them by likelihood, by severity, by resources,” says Gay.

He says that the security and risk assessment has been part of the plan since he started in June, but is now more relevant than ever. The assessment looks at internal threats and external threats, day to day threats and severe threats. These threats are put on a scale and addressed in accordance with resources.

“I was already looking into {doing a security assessment} and then we had some instances of violence on campus, it kinda, spoke to the point. But it happens everywhere, so it’s a matter of when and where?”

One point regarding security that has come up multiple times over the past few months is the presence of non ESU students in private spaces.

In fact, before the gunshots heard on campus in October, multiple non ESU students were turned away from a campus event.

“There’s an overall plan to increase the level of security on campus to prohibit unauthorized access to unauthorized areas. I can’t speak to it anymore right now, but we are working on a couple different plans from a couple different areas,” he says.

He also states that the security and police on campus have been receiving complaints in regards to unauthorized people in student spaces, such as the residence halls.

“The community has access to some of our resources but not all of our resources, so we need to be more clear about what they should be and shouldn’t be accessing.”

“We do have a safe campus, a relatively safe campus, and one of the bigger threats, I can tell you this from the assessment that’s going to be coming out, a majority of the threats we deal with are external.”

The assessment is still being completed, so while there is no conclusion just yet, Gay does have some advice for student safety.

His first advice is that students should be aware of their surroundings- be mindful of those around you, do not continuously look down into a phone and keep your hearing available.

“From decades of experience, I can tell you, being aware of your surroundings, and a person seeing that you’re aware is enough to dissuade someone from targeting you.”

His other advice is to trust your instincts. If something is telling you not to do something, or that something might be dangerous, don’t do it. Students can use a buddy system to walk throughout campus or they can reach campus security by calling the non-emergency number and asking for a courtesy ride.

His last piece of advice is that students should report any suspicious behavior, and they can do so anonymously. It is much better to prevent a crime than to report one. Should anything happen, the incident should be reported as soon as possible.

“We have 15-20 people in our department here. That’s 20 sets of eyes. There’s over 5000 students on campus, over 10000 eyes. {Students} are a great resource for us. That’s the message I would like to get out- this is your campus. It’s as safe as you can help us make it.”

“See something, say something. A way we resolve our problems is through prevention, early reporting.”

Gay is preparing a security committee next semester and part of this committee is an open forum so students can attend and voice their concerns.

“It’s our job to worry about keeping you safe.”

Resources:

For emergencies, call 911 or use the campus blue phones
For non-emergencies, call (570) 422-3064
To contact Chief Police Ralph Elick: relick@esu.edu
To contact Director of Campus Security Frank Gay: fgay@esu.edu
Campus Safety tips: https://www.esu.edu/university_police/safety_tips/index.cfm