Jared Barton
CONTRIBUTOR
This past week, the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) sent an email to students and faculty containing the 2019 Campus Security and Fire Report.
The 53-page report outlined the times the fire department came to campus, as well as incidents involving campus security, excluding student assistance and vehicular incidents. It also described various laws, bills and acts put in place to ensure student safety, like the SaVE act.
The report included multiple sections involving safety, including geographic terms used in crime reports; crime statistics on campus for 2015-2018; definitions under the Clery Act, as coined by the Department of Education; services to ensure students and faculty are well-informed in case of emergencies; and differences between warnings, bulletins and safety notifications.
As far as the fire and crime statistics are concerned, dating violence and drug law arrests are slightly up from previous years, but liquor law referrals are down. There was only one fire at UNO this past year, at Scott Village, and damage was reported as minor, with no injuries or deaths.
“I feel mostly safe, except for when it gets dark,” said UNO student Sarah Vanderzanden. “Being a young woman, I’m almost always on the alert despite the emergency call poles.”
College of Business Administration student Jozlyn Mcintyre spoke in a similar vein.
“I think they do a good job. They give people avenues if they don’t feel safe such as calling security to walk them to their car or to class,” Mcintyre said.
The report concluded with several guides on safety measures in the event of emergencies such as fires, tornadoes, snow, sexual harassment/misconduct and threats of violence or death.
There are resources listed for how to opt-in to emergency notifications and what said notifications indicate, as well as a long list of policies regarding disciplinary action for misconduct on the part of students or faculty. It concluded with counseling and referral services and guidelines and a list of student responsibilities and victim’s rights in the event of any incidents.
