Stephens College upholds a safe learning environment for students

While many colleges today are facing threats of crime and sexual offenses, Stephens College has managed to maintain a safe campus without any major security threats on campus in the last few years.

“Safety is obviously our number one priority,” Janese Silvey, the Story Specialist/Strategist at Stephens College said. Since, working at Stephens in January 2013, Silvey has experienced an extraordinarily safe environment on the campus.

“It’s my job to tell the story of Stephens College,” Silvey said. Silvey was a reporter for 14 years before becoming the Story Specialist/Strategist at Stephens.

Silvey also spent seven years working as a reporter at the Columbia Daily Tribune covering higher education and gained a strong understanding of the colleges in Columbia and the issues facing college safety.

Janese Silvey explained her experience with the degrees of safety and crime on the Stephens College campus and how it compared to the systems implemented at other college campuses in the area.

According to its website, Stephens strives to maintain a “safe, education-oriented and community-minded campus that maintains an academic and social environment conducive to intellectual and personal development of students and promotes the safety and welfare of all members of the campus community.”

Though Stephens has not faced any major security threats recently on its campus, students and staff at the college do receive alerts about safety issues at the nearby MU campus.

“We do get alerts when MU gets them, so we know if something has happened on the MU campus, and we can be extra aware,” Silvey said. The MU campus may warn Stephens about the threats it is experiencing, but Stephens isn’t faced with the same safety concerns as MU.

“In my time here, we’ve never really had an on-campus issue involving students that has prompted a mass alert,” Silvey said.

Stephens College has a mass alert system in place for any campus threats, including text messages, email and signage on campus, but hasn’t needed to use those tools in recent years.

According to the 2014 Stephens College Annual Security and Fire Safety Report, Stephens College experienced zero incidents of burglary, zero incidents of robbery, and one incident of forcible sex offense on campus in 2013.

In comparison, the 2015 MU Annual Fire Safety and Security Report recorded 13 incidents of burglary, one incident of robbery, and seven incidents of forcible sexual assault on campus in 2013.

Though the two campuses are close, they both experience varying degrees of campus crime and sexual assault. Students at Stephens are aware of these incidents on the MU campus because of the alert system but don’t generally experience the threats themselves.

“I think it’s an attitude here. Stephens is really a family and we all look out for each other,” Silvey said. Stephens College is a women’s college, and Silvey said she believed that having a female educational establishment makes it a safer place.

With her transition from journalism into the marketing office at Stephens, she said that she has felt that the Stephens environment was more like a family.

Silvey said that students have many different options at Stephens to stay safe while on campus.

“Our security team is here 24/7, and they are so protective and available. If a student is downtown and her friends have left her, she can call our security. They will drive anywhere in town and pick her up and bring her back to campus,” Silvey said. Silvey explained that she felt that this security system was a unique feature of Stephens that keeps students protected and safe.

Silvey also said she believed that her security team was a key component of the campus safety at Stephens.

Beginning Aug. 10, Ken Hammond became the new Director of Campus Safety and Security at Stephens. Hammond was previously a Columbia police officer, and his knowledge of the city transferred well into the Stephens College environment.

“He knows the area, he knows this part of town, so I’m very confident in our safety team here,” Silvey said, also noting a smooth transition with hiring Hammond into this position because of his experience in Columbia.

Hammond additionally works with local police and fire departments in order to routinely evaluate and update the school’s emergency response plans.

“Our security guards are really great at...making sure they know who’s on campus. I’ve had several call me and say ‘There’s a photographer here, there’s a reporter wandering around. Is this authorized by you?’” Silvey said. As a part of the Stephens faculty, Silvey said that she felt

that campus security was diligent and also worked well at including her into the campus safety process.

“They really keep an eye out for guests and know what’s going on,” Silvey said.

Silvey explained that the security office on campus has approximately 60 monitoring screens that display video of nearly every corner around campus in order to ensure a thorough examination of the campus for threats.

Silvey added that she feels safe on the Stephens campus, and she believes that all of the students attending the college feel safe as well.

#Journalism #College #Safety