Spotlight: September marks Safety Awareness Month

By Katie Williams
Collegian Editor
September 13, 2006

September is National Campus Safety Awareness Month. To coincide with this, La Salle is teaming up with Security On Campus, Inc., a national non-profit organization, to start a campaign to make students more aware of the dangers of college life as well as to provide them with safety tips and support. Spotlight spoke with Lane Neubauer, the Director of Health Services and adviser of Peer Educators, to find out what students should expect this month and in the months to come.

Spotlight: Why did La Salle decide to get involved with this?

Lane Neubauer: Actually, this is only the second year that National Campus Safety Awareness Month (NCSAM) has been in place. The Security On Campus, Inc. is only working with 50 schools this year, and when they offered La Salle a chance to get involved, we jumped at it. September is a dangerous month for most students, especially freshmen, so we feel that this campaign is an excellent way to get the word out.

SP: What group on campus is running this?

LN: Well, they contacted me, and then I went to the Leadership Team – the heads of all the different branches of Student Affairs. This is pretty much a campus-wide event. Everyone is doing something.

SP: What sort of campaign is being run?

LN: Since September is such a crazy month, we figured we’d do mostly passive programming for now, such as posting tips, hosting First Year Odysseys, etc. Basically, it’s an information campaign. However, there is a lot going on. For example, Late Night La Salle will be hosting safety tables. There will be fliers posted around campus and given out to the students and La Salle 56 will be airing safety PSAs. Career Services and University Ministry and Service will both be doing safety audits of the locations where they send students. We are planning on doing follow-ups during the year, which will be more active, so September is more of a kick-off month. However, if a student group would like to step up and run an active program or campaign, it’s more than welcome.

SP: Is anything special being done on the portal?

LN: Yes. Mike Nielson has set up a Web site on the portal for NCSAM. Each day, the portal will have a different safety tip. There are four main areas being focused on in the portal: sexual assault, alcohol, drugs and stalking, as well as info on hazing, hate crimes and other safety issues. Along with facts, there will be resources and areas for support for victims and those in need.

SP: Are there any activities planned with other schools?

LN: Not really. Though we are looking at what other schools are doing to get ideas, the program doesn’t unify the colleges. However, what’s good for a school like Villanova, which is in the suburbs, isn’t good for an urban school like La Salle. Each school has its own main concerns.

SP: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

LN: I guess just that this is our first year doing this, so it’s very exciting. We’ll learn from what we do this year and make it better for the next.

williamsk1@lasalle.edu