Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act

Annual Security Report and Annual Fire Safety Report

(from Selected Policies Manual)

The goal of the Office of Campus Safety is to protect the Willamette University community and to reduce campus crime. Help us help you by taking personal safety steps and by reporting emergencies, suspicious activity and criminal behavior.

Campus Safety officers, who are certified by the Oregon State Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, are available 24/7 to respond to calls for service from the Willamette Community. Officers have legal enforcement authority on all Willamette University and Tokyo International University of America property. The Office of Campus Safety maintains a relationship with both the Salem Police Department and the Salem Fire Department to assist with campus emergencies, investigation of crimes and fires and providing assistance in crime and fire prevention.

I. Campus Security Information

The Office of Campus Safety is responsible for the security of students, employees and the structures on campus. The officers are responsible for checking all facilities to ensure that they are secured. The residence halls are locked 24 hours a day. Campus academic buildings are locked when no classes are in session. Students can gain access to study, rehearse or perform research through e-mail requests from their professors. Approved access to locked buildings is programmed on ID cards.

All emergencies, suspicious activity, and criminal behavior should be reported immediately to Campus Safety by calling x6911 (503-370-6911). Telephones are available on the outside of many buildings in red metal boxes. When appropriate, Campus Safety will publish information regarding any current danger that reported criminal activities may present. Willamette University has a director of Campus Safety and seven (7) Campus Safety officers, and four support staff. Officers patrol the campus checking for anything out of the ordinary and responding to any dispatch call.

Willamette University has defined Campus Security authorities as: the director of Residence Life; the director of Campus Safety; the Area Coordinator (AC) on-call; and the Campus Safety officers. All crimes observed or reported to either the Campus Safety staff or Residence Life staff are reported to both the director of Residence Life and the director of Campus Safety.

The University begins the academic year with residence hall and floor meetings that discuss safety/security procedures. The goal is to ensure that every residence on campus has a minimum of one safety/security program per semester. These programs educate students on personal safety and security, and fire safety procedures. Employees receive an Emergency Reference Guide as part of the annual Campus Directory, and also receive training from their Building Captains about issues of building safety and evacuation.

The Office of Campus Safety annually prepares and distributes a brochure entitled, Watching Out for Yourself on Campus to all students, faculty and staff. Similarly, the Counseling Office annually prepares and makes available a brochure entitled, Getting Help ... Resources and Options for Survivors of Rape and Sexual Assault. These materials are available on the Willamette University website, or upon request.

Community members are encouraged to report immediately any criminal and suspicious activity to a Campus Safety officer by calling 503-370-6911. Community members are encouraged to contact the Salem Police Department if they are a victim of a crime and wish to involve law enforcement outside of the campus community. Every appropriate effort will be made to maintain confidentiality. Persons wishing to discuss a situation in strict confidentiality may do so by speaking with the University’s chaplain, a counselor in the Counseling Center, or Health Center staff.

A log of all crimes and on-campus fires reported to the Office of Campus Safety is maintained and is available and open for public inspection during normal business hours. These logs includes the type of crime, the location of occurrence, the date and time reported, disposition of the situation (if known), cause of fire, and values of property damage from fires.

For further information, see our crime statistics for current and past years.

II. Emergency Response and Evacuation Procedures

The Emergency Preparedness Guide is both online and printed in the Campus Directory (Fusser’s). This Guide will assist community members in preparing for and responding quickly and effectively to a variety of emergency situations.

An emergency notification system is in place to notify community members via e-mail, cell phone, office phone and home phone of an emergency situation. This notification system is provided by Blackboard-Connect which manages and maintains software to provide these notifications. Campus personnel are able to interface with the software and send emergency messages by either the internet or by calling an 800 number. All students are provided with an account on this system and are required to provide a phone number (preferably a cell phone number) where they could be reached in the event of an on-campus situation. An e-mail is also sent along with the telephone notification. This system is tested at noon, on the first day of each month, during the academic year.

The nature of the emergency will dictate what the message(s) will say. The message could be about a weather closure, or campus evacuation. The message(s) will provide information and necessary updates about what to do and where to go to maintain personal safety. Any time an emergency situation presents itself, the University will immediately determine if this notification system would provide an increased measure of safety for community members and will activate the system if necessary. The Director of Campus Safety, the Director of Residence Life, the Dean of Campus Life, the Vice-President of Administrative Services and the President of the University (or their designees) all have the authority to activate the Emergency Notification System.

III. Missing Student Notification

If a student who lives in on-campus housing is reported missing or there is a concern that they have not been seen in their residence room for an unusual period of time, the Office of Campus Safety will begin an investigation. This will begin with phone calls to all known phone numbers for that individual, personal contact or phone calls to friends, possible calls to parents or other relatives and checking for their vehicle on campus. If a student has been missing for over 24 hours and none of these attempts to contact the student and verify their whereabouts is successful, the Office of Campus Safety will contact the Salem Police Department. The status of the investigation, including all prior attempts to contact the student, will be passed along to the Salem Police Department. The parent of any student under the age of 18 who is not emancipated will be notified.

Students who live on campus have the option of providing the University with a confidential contact person to be notified in the event that the student is determined to be missing. Only authorized campus officials and law enforcement officers, in the furtherance of a missing person investigation, may have access to this information. Students may enter and update their confidential contact person by accessing the “Fusser’s Guide Update” in “JASON” on the University Services section of the website. This confidential contact person will be notified if the student is determined to be missing.

IV. Fire Safety –Procedures, Statistics, Reports and Documentation

The Office of Campus Safety should always be notified immediately in the event of a fire alarm or if someone witnesses fire or smoke by calling 503-370-6911, 24 hours a day. All on-campus housing facilities are equipped with smoke detection systems which are automatically activated in the event of smoke or fire in a building. Some campus residences are equipped with fire suppression systems (see the location list) that automatically activate in a fire. These systems are tested and maintained to be in good working order at all times.

If an alarm is activated, an audible siren or bell rings within the facility and a signal is sent to a licensed fire alarm monitoring station, which in turn calls 911. Campus Safety officers are also notified by the alarm monitoring station. Campus Safety officers respond along with the Salem Fire Department to investigate the cause of the alarm and assist in evacuating the building. Fire drills are held twice a year; one in each of the two semesters. All residents are required to evacuate the building, even if they know that the alarm is false, or a drill.

Fire prevention is a vital objective. To this end, there are a number of restricted objects and activities within campus buildings. These include: no smoking at any time, no candles, incense or other incendiaries, no halogen lamps, no hot plates or other cooking, no unapproved electrical cords, no propane or other fuels, and or covering, tampering or disabling a smoke detector. In-room inspections are performed twice annually to monitor the presence of any prohibited items.

View the annual fire statistics (pdf) for more information.