USAO is dedicated to being a safe campus because of the precautions and policies implemented to make safety a top priority. Currently, there are 1,028 students enrolled at USAO, making the campus one-sixteenth of the population of the city of Chickasha per Skyler Sturgis-Garneau, USAO’s Housing Facilities Coordinator, and the United States Census Bureau.
One new change in campus safety has been addressed this trimester, with the addition of AllVoices.
“AllVoices is an anonymous platform for reporting incidents,” Title IX Coordinator Angela Harris, said.
The new reporting platform is not just for students, but for faculty, staff, and alumni. This new platform soft-launched at the beginning of August allowing Harris to have time to work out any problems before students arrived.
Before AllVoices, the university had an incident reporting platform, but many community members were unfamiliar with it. AllVoices was made as a user-friendly program for the betterment of USAO. This platform is not just an incident reporting program as feedback for campus issues can be reported as well.
Along with AllVoices, USAO’s security team looks to continue advocating for the safety of the community.
“We are quite a bit different than most security departments. I would almost classify us as like a public service department of public safety,” Coordinator of Security and Emergency Preparedness Russell Pool said.
USAO’s security performs many different tasks around campus such as unlocking buildings, managing delivery services, escorting vendors around campus, helping in medical emergencies, monitoring security cameras, escorting students across campus, managing fire alarm systems, responding to maintenance emergencies, and keeping a record of incidents happening on campus.
As Pool described, the university’s security team is more like a safety team for everyone. They are not on campus to lay down the regulations but to keep everyone safe.
Pool suggested these safety tips for all students to follow.
- Check out the Annual Security Report (Clery Report) for 2024.
- Secure your personal belongings.
- Lock your cars.
- Lock your dorm rooms and apartment doors.
- Don’t walk alone at night instead travel in groups.
Resident assistants (RAs) are also another key to ensuring USAO students and the community are secure. They are looked upon as a middleman for students and faculty to understand each other and events that take place across campus.
“A big thing, I think, is the connection that we created that allows for conversations about safety and other issues,” Dean of Students Dawn Reitan-Brockman said.
At the beginning of the year, each RA had a meeting with the residents in their building and floor level. This allowed everyone to get to know their RAs for their living area and fostered open communication.
The 2024-2025 school year has seen many changes thus far, and that includes USAO’s security messaging as well.
An important program USAO had was Drover Alerts. With this program, the student body was sent safety alerts through a text message and an email. However, Drover Alerts is being replaced by RAVE Mobile Safety.
RAVE is a program that will send out a text, an email, and a phone call depending on the level of the safety alert. The program allows safety alerts regarding almost anything to be sent out, and alerts can be sent out to targeted students if needed.
“The other cool part is community members can sign up for it, and so they can have alerts too,” said Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Life Sheppard McConnell.
RAVE is up and ready to be used, but the mobile app is still being worked on. Currently, there are a few faculty positions that have access to the program and can send out alerts.
All of the university’s safety strategies strive to keep everyone safe, but in the event of an emergency, students should remember immediate assistance can be obtained by contacting emergency services at 911.
The following is contact information for AllVoices, campus security, and resident assistants for those who need them.
- AllVoices: Anonymous Feedback, Harassment Reporting and Case Management – AllVoices
- Campus Security Phone Number: 405-222-8066
- Sparks Resident Assistant Phone Number: 405-320-1871
- Lawson Resident Assistant Phone Number: 405-320-0378
Cassie Srock is a second-year communication major at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.