“Rude, unprofessional, and lazy”. The kind of opinion that was expressed in a recent Associated Students survey at Fullerton College.
“The Campus Safety employees I’ve encountered have all been (obscenity) who seem to have little interest in protecting and more in exercising power,” said one student in the comment section of the survey.
Campus safety officials are staffed on campus 24 hours every day and provide a wide range of services. Some of the services include performing first aid, escorts services for students and staff to their vehicle and assistance to help jump-start a vehicle with a dead battery.
Opinion on campus safety varies but when it comes to campus safety officials patrolling, one student who requested not to be identified, felt security was lacking.
“I am on campus from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. When I think about it, I don’t think I can remember ever seeing a campus safety officer patrolling the campus with the only exception of the parking lots,” they said. “They seem to like to hang around their waiting to write parking citations.”
This kind of absence felt by the students is very concerning for A.S. President Jose Solano.
“I saw a fight happening in the quad and campus safety did not show up for giv minutes,” Solano said. “We cant have that kind of response time.”
Solano also voiced concern about the growth of the school. Fullerton College currently has 25,000 students according to Solano.
“If the department needs to grow, because we are speaking up about it, it could mean that they may be able to get the resources they need whether it is funding to hire more officers, or buy more equipment,” he said.
On the homepage of the campus safety website, there is a link to a video titled “Shots Fired”.
Shots Fired, is an informative video about how to respond to an active shooter on campus. With the number of students having concerns about not seeing enough officers on campus one might wonder how campus safety might choose to respond in the event that a shooter happens to be on campus.
“If we get any information of such a situation, we will try to find the location and description of the suspect and get Fullerton Police involved. We would call immediately as soon as we get a call,” said Fullerton campus safety Sgt. Jim McKamy.
Solano believes that there needs to be a committee where students should be able to evaluate campus safety, but as of now no such committee exist.
McKamy added that campus safety is open to any suggestion that could help them do a better job and is always in support for anything that will help better insure the safety of all students on campus.
“We are very approachable, any student can come to our office and speak with the directory of safety, or myself,” McKamy said. “We are here for the students to make sure they have a safe environment for them to go to school.”
McKamy urges all students to have the campus safety number saved on their phones (714) 992-7777 in the event of a campus safety emergency.