The first Campus Safety Week took place at Milligan College last week. Director of Property and Risk Management Brent Nipper organized the week’s various events as a way to help educate students on the safety procedures at Milligan College.
“Students can see everything we talk about in our handbook,” he said, “but this week was a good way to remind students about the procedures and to show appreciation for our security personnel.”
The safety week began on Monday with a flyer emailed to the student population that contained various procedures for emergencies as outlined by Milligan’s security office, such as for reporting crimes on campus and how to contact campus security, as well as how the Milligan RAVE alert system works.
Tuesday’s event was a training seminar on how to prepare for an active shooter scenario.
Sergeant Amanda Worley from East Tennessee State University’s Department of Public Health led the event. The training gave attendees information on how to best survive a shooter on campus, such as barricading entrances and memorizing escape routes.
“When something like (a school shooting) is in the national news, students often come by with questions about what they should do if something like that were to happen,” Nipper said. “This was a way to address some of those concerns in a constructive way.”
On Wednesday, Nipper answered student questions at a booth at the Wellness Fair and then that evening held a dinner celebrating the campus security personnel.
“Students only ever see campus security when they are patrolling or when they need something,” Nipper said. “So we wanted to do something to help show our appreciation for all they do and also to let students get to meet them in a different kind of setting.”
On the final day, Thursday, the events focused on fire safety, with campus wide fire drills occurring in the evening.
Nipper said he thought the week was a success and that he plans to continue Campus Security Week in future years, covering different topics and featuring new events.