March/April 2023

Dear Bucknellians, 

I hope everyone had a restful and restorative spring break. As we march toward the end of the spring semester, we wanted to share the following updates with you. 

QR Code

Public Safety is moving to a new feedback system to allow members of the community to rate their interactions with all departmental staff. For the past year, officers handed out Guardian Score cards after any interactions with the public lasting longer than a minute. This was part of our efforts to Increase transparency and strengthen relationships with our community, which were at the top of my agenda last spring. Although Guardian Score was effective, we wanted to provide our campus community with better opportunities to provide more targeted feedback that is customized to Bucknell. Working directly with students and staff, we developed survey questions designed to specifically address the needs of our community. 

Effective immediately, officers now have a QR code on the back of their business cards. The QR code allows commenting on everything from Dispatch to interactions with the Buffalo Valley Regional Police Department and Public Safety supervisors. All submissions are anonymous and are first reviewed by Assistant Director Jamie Grobes. Please take advantage of the opportunity to comment on your interactions with Public Safety — your feedback is critical to our ability to serve the community.

back of the card

Upcoming Events

• Public Safety will offer doughnuts with Digger the therapy dog on Tuesday, March 28, from 6 to 8 p.m.  in the Center Room of the ELC.
• We look forward to participating in Canoe Battleship on Friday, April 14, at 9 p.m. in Kinney Natatorium.
• We will pass out ribbons in April to recognize Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and we will be wearing denim on Wednesday, April 26, in solidarity with survivors of sexual violence. 

BSAFE App

We are finalizing details of our new BSAFE app as another safety tool for the campus community. The app will be accessed through the Bucknell App. It will give students, faculty and staff another opportunity to communicate with Public Safety and access information. Features will include the ability to quickly connect with Public Safety or local police; a “mobile blue light” that sends your device’s location to Public Safety; a “Friend Walk” that allows you to send your real-time location to a friend; and numerous resources to help keep you safe. Please watch for an introduction to the BSAFE app in the Message Center later this semester.

Trainings

As we get closer to the end of the semester, this is a final reminder for this academic year that we continue to offer training in the following topics:

• Active Shooter
• De-escalation
• Workplace Violence Mitigation
• AVADE Personal Self-defense

We can offer a training at a time that works for any students, faculty or staff — please contact us at publicsafety@bucknell.edu to make arrangements.

Active Violence Training

We are all aware of the tragic recent events on several college campuses. The safety of our community is our top priority. Here is some information to keep in mind if you are involved in an Active Violence Event.

The first thing you should do is evacuate if possible. Evacuation is the strategy of removing yourself from danger if you have time and distance. Be situationally aware of your environment, and know the locations of exits such as doors, windows, hallways, etc. Evacuation is a valuable response option if you are involved in an incident with an armed intruder. Historically, violent intruders are not highly trained tactical operators, and your movement affects their accuracy. To buy time, try to make yourself a difficult target by moving in different directions, not straight lines

Familiarize yourself with all possible exits. If it is necessary to break a window to evacuate, use a heavy object to break an upper corner of the window, and then use the object to remove the shards of glass from the window frame. If the window is on the second story,, do not simply jump  — hang from the window to decrease the height of the drop, then bend your knees and roll upon impact. If the window is above the second story, you will need to make the best decision to increase your chance of survival based on the circumstances.

If evacuation is not possible, your next option may be to barricade yourself by placing available items such as desks, chairs or heavy tables against the door. If the door opens outward, use cords or ropes to tie the objects to the doorknob to prevent the door from being opened from the outside. Then stay away from the door, as a violent intruder may shoot through or under the door. Once the barricade is in place, everyone in the room should spread out with objects in hand, and be ready to counter the intruder if the barricade is breached.

Past events have indicated that if a violent intruder cannot easily make entry, they move to the next available target. Barricading your space gives you time to make your next decision and look for alternate means of unconventional evacuation such as breaking through walls, escaping through windows, or by any other means possible.

Finally, if there is no other option, you may have to use whatever is available to you to counter/fight for your survival. We recognize this can be a difficult subject to think about, but we want you to understand that in certain situations, it may be necessary. In an Active Violence Event, you will be on your own until law enforcement arrives. You must be mentally prepared to do everything in your power to save yourself.  

We go over all this in depth in our training, so if you would like to learn more, please reach out to us at publicsafety@bucknell.edu.