An event that started out as a simple idea to promote campus safety at The University of New Mexico has grown into a week of events designed to create awareness and provide information, promote resources and tools for a safer campus. This year, UNM hosts its fourth annual Campus Safety Week Sept. 3 through 5.
“People should be interested in Campus Safety, so that they are familiar with all the safety resources we have to help students stay safe, such as emergency blue phones, campus escorts, the RAVEGuardian app, and UNM police and security officers,” said Rob Burford, Clery Act compliance officer. “Additionally, the President’s Office has been very supportive of Campus Safety since her start here at UNM last year, which is a great benefit to our entire UNM Campus Community.”
While previous years have had a theme, this year’s event focuses on well-rounded approach of all things involving safety, not just on Main Campus, but North Campus as well. The most notable event of safety week is the annual Safety Walk, where the campus community can walk with UNM leadership and discuss areas of concern on campus.
As part of UNM’s new main campus safety initiatives, which includes the new Safety Council, UNM Police Lt. Tish Young reached out to get the HSC Event organized this year. UNM’s North Campus has held both virtual walks as well as walks around North Campus in the past, but not during safety week.
“North Campus has done their campus walks on occasion, but they have typically not been during the same timeframe as main campus,” said Burford. “Safety week should be inclusive of our entire campus so we want to make sure we are giving everyone the opportunity to be a part of this event.”
On Tuesday, Sept. 3, a series of events include “Coffee with a Cop” on north campus, a workshop on dealing with disruptive students and the Main Campus Safety Walk. Additionally, UNM will test its emergency notification systems, which also includes a siren test, at 11:02 a.m. on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Sept. 4, main campus hosts “Coffee with a Cop” and a hands only CPR class.
The CPR class is provided to all UNM, HSC, and UH community members. To register, visit Hands Only CPR Registration.
Safety Week concludes on Thursday, Sept. 5 with a “Storm Spotter Training” training workshop, a self-defense workshop, a bystander training workshop for student employees and the North Campus Safety Walk. Participants for the safety walk should meet at the HSC Healthy Heart Bistro.
Originally designed to create safety awareness within the campus community, the idea for campus safety week came about when Burford, along with Caitlin Henke from Women’s Resource Center, thought it was a good idea for the University to align campus safety week during the same month as National Campus Safety Awareness Month.
“We wanted to try to help our UNM Community understand what we have here on our campus, as far as campus safety services, plus attend to other safety topics that our campus might want to know more about,” says Burford.
For more information about campus safety and a complete schedule of events, visit UNM Campus Safety.