CMU student Bryn Loftness took her concern about campus safety to the Associated Student Government. She wanted manual locks on doors so teachers could lock their rooms from the inside.
Most doors in academic buildings use a card swipe locking system.
It was a long and circuitous process. But, she made headway.
“After the Parkland shooting, I was concerned about how safety is on campus,” Loftness said. “I went to a teacher and they directed me to Pua Utu, the campus security officer. Utu went through what steps to take, but I already knew the steps and precautions. I wanted to do something tangible. He directed me to ASG.”
“A student came to us and spoke during our public input, but she really pleaded to us that she was talking to some people on campus, to some teachers and she went and spoke to Pua Uta, our campus security officer, and he directed her to us in order for us to kind of represent her concerns,” ASG Vice President Gabrielle Gile said.
“We brought it up on Monday with (CMU Vice President) John Marshall, and he reassured us that most of the doors on campus have the card swipe locks and they do lock down at a moment’s notice to any of those rooms. There’s a cloud and it automatically locks all of them from a button on a computer,” Gile said. “He advocated for that being a very safe way of doing it.”
Loftness explained that after the first time she attended an ASG meeting that there was not much follow up. But she didn’t feel like the funds should come from student fees and that they should come from grounds funds.
“After the second time [at ASG meeting] when John Marshall was there, I asked to meet with him and he said he would,” Loftness said. “I never heard any follow up from any administration.”
At this second meeting, Marshall did reference codes that CMU couldn’t break due to fire safety. Loftness took the next step in her mission, as she likes to call it, and contacted Mike Gazdak, a fire prevention specialist. She gained information on codes CMU must abide by in order to not affect fire safety. She then got in contact with Rick Fox, facilities manager.
“He helped me a lot and was the final point in the whole mission,” Loftness said.
Before Loftness there was talk about a different way to lock the doors in case of an emergency. Yet, the process was not going quick enough for her. With Fox and Loftness working and brainstorming together, she feels they now have a solid plan to put into place.
“We are now implementing a new addition for faculty to access in academic buildings,” Loftness said. “I’m going to be here this summer and Fox said we are going to work together to get it implemented by next year.”
Loftness, in her new role as RHA Treasurer for 2018-2019, is also going to try spreading safety awareness and open the conversation up by creating campus initiatives. . She explained that a lot of people don’t want to talk about it, but it is important to know what to do in the case of an active shooter.
“I’m going to be treasurer for RHA and I want to do more initiatives,” Loftness said.
One of the first steps Loftness took in this mission was researching what to do in case of an active shooter. In the email that was sent out to students about CMU safety, the link provided gave Loftness a good amount of information.
“Long term goal is to have more awareness on campus,” Loftness said. “I get that we can’t explain the exact programs we have, but students still need to know that they are safe.”
As new additions may spring about in the fall, CMU is still in the top safest schools in Colorado, Loftness explained. This helped CMU get a grant to provide these changes.
“We’ve done a lot to try and keep our school safe, but you can never be too safe,” Loftness said.
Efforts to reach Marshall’s office for comment on the door locks did not receive a response.
So glad someone did this.