The Office of Public Safety welcomes all Bucknellians to the start of fall semester. We have been hard at work this summer laying the groundwork to offer enhanced training to the campus community. Starting this fall, we will offer instruction in personal self defense, workplace violence mitigation strategies, active shooter response, crime deterrence, and other topics. We look forward to providing our campus partners with these new opportunities — please email publicsafety@bucknell.edu to request a training.

We Herd You!

During the spring semester, I appreciated listening to the concerns of the campus community. Here are some recent steps we’ve taken in response to your suggestions:

• We outfitted all officers with body cameras.
• We are looking at uniform changes. Selected team members will be trying out a new uniform with a professional but more approachable look.
• We posted our Public Safety Policy Manual online.
• We formed a student advisory committee.
• We have invested in professional development, allowing our staff to become trainers in topics that are relevant to the campus community.
• We created a staff position focused on community engagement and outreach.
• We implemented Guardian Score as a mechanism to allow the campus community to rate their interactions with officers

All of these initiatives are part of our broader strategy to increase transparency, build relationships, and respond to requests from the campus community. We thank you for your continued input.

Parking Changes

Please review the following parking updates, which took effect on Aug. 1.

1. The Coleman parking lot (Lot 61) will be designated for student parking only, with the exception of accessible spaces, which will remain available to employees and students with an accessible parking sticker.

2. Student parking lots will no longer be categorized by zone. Any student with a valid student parking sticker may park in any student lot.

3. Parking fines for repeat offenses will increase by $10 after the fifth offense for both students and employees.

4. Cars that are parked illegally after five prior parking offenses will be towed. It will be the owner’s responsibility to retrieve the car from a local towing company and pay the associated costs. This applies to both students and employees.

More information about campus parking can be found on the Public Safety website.

Safety Tips

We want to remind all students of a few important safety tips:

• Use locks. Lock your car, your residence hall room, your bike, etc.
• Do not leave your valuables out in the open or unsecured.
• Be aware of your surroundings at night. Walk with a buddy, both on and off campus.
• If you feel uncomfortable walking alone at night, call our safe escort service.
• Be aware of the locations of blue light emergency callboxes across campus.
• If you see something, please call us and say something. In an emergency, call 570-577-1111. For non-emergency situations, call 570-577-3333. 

Additional Information

The photos below highlight some of our continued efforts this summer to engage with our campus community in an intentional manner.

We have made several changes and updates to our department webpage. I encourage you to explore the page to see new information.

Finally, in light of recent national events, please know that Bucknell Public Safety officers are trained to directly engage with any threat of violence.