Campus Safety: Topic of Discussion

By Murrow News - Caitlyn Rippel

46 weeks into 2019, there had been 45 school shootings among elementary, middle, high schools and universities. Conversations about campus safety help inform students of what procedures and features are in place to keep the peace.

A shooting at Texas A&M in early February 2020 sparked question as to what procedures Washington State University has in place.

Asst. Chief of Police, Steven Hansen, described multiple features of safety that the WSU campus has including programs specific to residence halls, patrols around campus, officers to escort people to where they need to be and more.

The Pullman campus also has multiple emergency stations with blue lights on top scattered around campus. These stations allow students to press the red emergency button alerting emergency personnel, elevators also have this feature.

“We do our best to try and be out there and interact with the students and just call us and say, ‘Hey this is going on’,” Hansen said.

“I look at it from the standpoint, what can I do? And learn from it. Why did it happen? How did it happen? What can I learn,” Hansen said when discussing safety breaches at other schools.

The WSU campus police work with students and faculty to try and maintain a safe campus for everyone in attendance. Hansen encourages students to interact with officers and that it’s better to make sure things are safe rather than risking it.

46 weeks into 2019, there had been 45 school shootings among elementary, middle, high schools and universities. Conversations about campus safety help inform students of what procedures and features are in place to keep the peace. A shooting at Texas A&M in early February 2020 sparked question as to what procedures Washington State University has in place. Asst. Chief of Police, Steven Hansen, described multiple features of safety that the WSU campus has including programs specific to residence halls, patrols around campus, officers to escort people to where they need to be and more. The Pullman campus also has multiple emergency stations with blue lights on top scattered around campus. These stations allow students to press the red emergency button alerting emergency personnel, elevators also have this feature. “We do our best to try and be out there and interact with the students and just call us and say, ‘Hey this is going on’,” Hansen said. “I look at it from the standpoint, what can I do? And learn from it. Why did it happen? How did it happen? What can I learn,” Hansen said when discussing safety breaches at other schools. The WSU campus police work with students and faculty to try and maintain a safe campus for everyone in attendance. Hansen encourages students to interact with officers and that it’s better to make sure things are safe rather than risking it.
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