Photo By Nick Weems

In response to the timely notices that have filled students’ emails to start the semester, ASG has formed a safety committee to improve the awareness of programs on campus, hear feedback from students, and get information to the students. The committee was formed by Senate Leader Adrienne Barlow and 11 senators have joined the committee.

“Since I’ve been on ASG, it has been a goal of mine. I think that there are always ways to improve safety on campus,” Barlow said. “We want to find how can we improve getting information to students, how is our current system working and is there anything we can bring to campus?”

The committee has three main areas of focus, including gathering resources for students, getting information to the students, and hearing back from the students on what they think or what they want to see.

For example, Barlow wants to bring all the resources on campus to one place. Reports on crime statistics can be found in the Cleary Reports on the school’s homepage, but the goal is to bring those numbers, along with counseling services, safety assistants and so forth, to one place.

“If a situation comes up, we want everyone to know they aren’t alone in dealing with it,” Barlow said.

There is no fix-all strategy when it comes to the safety on campus, but by trying to split up responsibilities, ASG is attacking the issue from multiple perspectives.

Part of the fix can encourage students to utilize the services the school provides. ASG wants students to be involved in any way they can and are currently working on a Town Hall public forum for students to be held around the start of April. Vice President of Student Services John Marshall will hold a town hall type meeting from 11:30-1:30 on March 5-6 in UC 213. According to Barlow, the committee is working through Marshall to communicate with GJPD through the process.

The committee is working with the school to release a survey asking students what they think about safety on campus. Students are also welcome to talk to the three committee liaisons, Senator Andrew Knarr, Vice President Ashley Pulido, and Barlow on issues they think are pertinent. There are nine other senators, so Barlow said there should always be someone in the Student Life suite who can point students with concerns in the right direction. As of now, the group is working through the preliminary stages, so there has not been a set meeting time. Barlow encourages students to keep their eyes and ears open and use their student senate.

brjthomp@mavs.coloradomesa.edu