Annual campus safety review conducted by Advisory Committee
On Thursday Feb. 2 at 6 p.m., Geneseo’s Advisory Committee on Campus Safety led its annual campus safety walk—an event that, each year, aims to address safety and accessibility issues on Geneseo’s campus. The review is run in late fall or early winter during the evening in order to easily identify lighting issues. Spanning across half of the campus each year, this year’s review focused on North Village, Central Village, and parts of the academic quad.
The campus safety walk is an open event, available to all students, staff, and faculty who wish to attend. Co-chairs of the Advisory Committee, Chief of Police Scott Ewanow and Vice President of Student and Campus Life Michael Taberski, sought volunteers from the Geneseo community to assist them in this annual responsibility.
“There were about 15 people at this year’s Campus Safety Survey,” Ewanow said in an interview conducted via email. “We took notes on areas where lights were out and not working, sidewalks [that] might need repair, and other areas that could benefit from new or improved lighting. Only one attendee was a student. We also discussed the blue lights that currently exist on campus, and how they are tested monthly to make sure they are working and to work with CIT to make repairs that might be needed.”
This attention to campus convenience relates mostly to issues of safety and accessibility. Ewanow elaborated on his perspective as Chief of Police for the New York State University Police Department, providing context for the goals the committee works to accomplish each year: “We want students to feel safe and confident when walking on their own or in groups. We also want to make sure things like crosswalks are well lit and marked. The challenge then becomes trying to make sure students utilize the sidewalks and crosswalks and not just walk in the road or cut across areas for convenience.”
Regarding safety matters, Ewanow pinpointed lighting and trip hazards as two major focal points of the safety walk; for accessibility, the committee looks for drastic curb cuts, parking spaces that meet American with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design, and areas where snow might obstruct the walkability of certain pathways.
This year’s campus safety review passed with fewer notes than in previous years—according to Ewanow, “We typically find a couple of lights that are out either on buildings or in parking lots. Since the campus upgraded to LED lighting a few years back, these have become less frequent. We also noticed an area where the sidewalk has started to deteriorate. That area was noted and put on a replacement schedule for the spring. Overall, this walk had fewer issues than past walks which is a testament to the work of our Facilities Team here at Geneseo and addressing past concerns and replacing older and outdated equipment.”
To keep campus safety and accessibility at the forefront of the Geneseo community’s mind year-round, Ewanow offered sage and simple advice: “A help for us is when people see areas of concern that they report them. Whether that is to an RA if you live in a Residence Hall, directly to Facilities Services or to UPD. It is best for us to know about concerns in real time so that they can be addressed and hopefully found prior to the yearly safety review.”