UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The beginning of a brand new semester at Penn State marks extra than simply the beginning of courses. For a lot of college students, the brand new semester additionally marks their first time residing on their very own — and with that independence additionally comes the necessity for private accountability for one’s personal security and safety.
Officer Michelle Beckenbaugh, group policing liaison officer for Penn State College Police and Public Security (UPPS), mentioned that everybody — from particular person group members to workplaces like UPPS — performs an vital position in making a protected and welcoming campus.
“Our prime precedence is pupil security, and we’re at all times dedicated to offering the most secure potential campus atmosphere,” Beckenbaugh mentioned. “It’s the accountability of everybody, each on the particular person and group stage, to take an lively position in taking care of their private security and contributing to the general well being and security of our group.”
Step one to upholding your personal well being and security is to at all times concentrate on your atmosphere, Beckenbaugh mentioned. Whether or not it’s ensuring to look each methods earlier than you cross the road, holding observe of your valuables like your telephone and pockets, or ensuring you’re conscious of what’s occurring round you whilst you’re out and about, being situationally conscious is at all times a primary line of protection.
Listed here are another sensible suggestions for staying protected throughout your time at Penn State:
Observe public well being and security steering associated to COVID-19
Penn State continues to observe the pandemic intently in any respect College places and is ready to pivot shortly if circumstances worsen and extra intensive mitigation measures develop into needed. COVID-19 exams and vaccines are broadly out there and the College is constant to supply contact tracing for college kids, in addition to on- or near-campus quarantine and isolation house for college kids who stay on campus.
The College strongly recommends face masks be worn indoors on campuses in counties designated by the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) to have excessive COVID-19 Group Ranges. Even on campuses in counties with low or medium COVID-19 Group Ranges, College leaders encourage anybody who needs to put on a masks indoors on these campuses to proceed to take action. Face masks will proceed to be required in services offering well being care and in different places the place required by regulation, together with indoors on the School of Medication, Penn State Well being places, College Well being Providers, and different campus well being care places.
College leaders additionally strongly encourage all members of the group to remain updated with their COVID-19 vaccinations — together with booster doses — and to share their vaccination standing with the College. College students at College Park, Commonwealth Campuses and Dickinson Regulation can add their vaccination information by myUHS. At College Park, College Well being Providers can present appointments for college kids to obtain their first and second doses (major collection) of the Moderna vaccine in addition to their booster shot. For college kids and staff at Commonwealth Campuses, native vaccine website places listed by a ZIP code search will be discovered on-line at Vaccines.gov.
College students who’re experiencing signs of COVID-19 or those that are involved they might have been uncovered to COVID-19, shouldn’t go to class or take part in different actions. As an alternative, these college students ought to search out symptomatic COVID-19 testing by UHS, their campus well being middle or one other well being care supplier. People can carry out a every day self-check through the use of the Penn State GO app COVID-19 Symptom Checker. College students can notify the College of a third-party constructive lab take a look at consequence by submitting take a look at outcomes by myUHS. College students who take a look at constructive with an at-home take a look at equipment might report their constructive consequence by finishing the on-line referral kind, being certain to incorporate the date the take a look at was taken.
Extra COVID-19 steering will be discovered at this Penn State Information article and virusinfo.psu.edu.
Know learn how to contact police
For quick help or life-threatening emergencies, college students can and at all times ought to name 911.
College students at College Park ought to program the quantity for College Police (814-863-1111) into their telephones, and concentrate on learn how to discover the College Park police station at 30 Eisenhower Parking Deck.
Every Commonwealth Campus additionally has its personal police station. Commonwealth Campus college students ought to seek the advice of this listing to seek out the telephone quantity and station handle for their very own campus.
College students can also report a suspected crime to College Police utilizing this on-line kind, which applies to each campus and permits college students to stay nameless in the event that they so select.
Moreover, many on-campus elevators have emergency telephones, and each campus has emergency telephones in public, out of doors areas, within the type of poles topped with blue lights. College students can use the “well being and security” filters on map.psu.edu to notice the placement of emergency telephones for every campus.
All the time lock your door
The vast majority of thefts that happen on campus stem from a residence corridor room being left unlocked and unattended, Beckenbaugh mentioned. Whether or not you reside on or off campus, at all times be sure you lock your door to assist safeguard towards theft.
Equally, ensuring your bicycle is correctly locked and registered, and that private objects akin to telephones, laptops, wallets or purses should not left unaccounted or unattended, may help to enormously cut back the probability of theft.
Beckenbaugh additionally famous that residence halls are outfitted with security programs to limit entry to residents of that constructing solely, and she encourages college students to not bypass these programs.
“Residence halls and residence buildings are personal residences, and you shouldn’t let strangers or unescorted company into these buildings,” she mentioned. “And, in fact, if you happen to see somebody achieve entry who shouldn’t, don’t hesitate to report it to police.”
Safeguard your private info
Phishing scams and telephone scams sadly are frequent, so make certain to not give out your private info, together with your Penn State ID quantity and your passwords, Beckenbaugh suggested.
Should you obtain an odd electronic mail or telephone name making an attempt to get you to share private info, even seemingly from somebody you already know and belief, it could very properly be a phishing try.
“If one thing doesn’t appear proper,” Beckenbaugh mentioned, “then it most likely isn’t proper.”
She additionally famous that official regulation enforcement businesses, together with College and native police, won’t ever contact you demanding cash underneath the specter of arrest — this can be a frequent rip-off that may take many alternative types.
If you’re uncertain if one thing is legit, attain out to a trusted supply or report the incident to College Police. You possibly can report suspicious emails to [email protected]. To study extra about info safety and what you are able to do to guard your self on-line, go to safety.psu.edu/phishing. Should you consider you’re a sufferer of a rip-off, you need to report it to police by calling 911 or utilizing the web reporting kind.
Perceive ’Run, Conceal, Battle’
Penn State has adopted an Lively Attacker Response Program as a part of the College’s ongoing dedication to the protection of those that are on College campuses to study, stay, work and go to.
Based mostly upon the “Run, Conceal, Battle” mannequin developed by the town of Houston, Texas, Penn State’s Lively Attacker Response Program affords the identical three motion steps if confronted with an lively assailant, making it straightforward to recollect and act upon in an emergency: run if you happen to can, conceal if you happen to can’t, and struggle as a final resort.
College Police and Public Security has further particulars on the “Run, Conceal, Battle” protocol, together with a step-by-step information and coaching video, out there at this web page.
Name the Penn State Protected Stroll service if strolling dwelling alone
Each Penn Stater has each proper to really feel protected strolling round campus. If, for no matter purpose, you ever really feel unsafe strolling by your self, college students at any Penn State campus can name the Protected Stroll service at 814-865-WALK (9255) and a pupil auxiliary officer will accompany you to your on-campus vacation spot. The Protected Stroll program is a free service of College Police and is out there to college students and staff from nightfall to daybreak, 12 months a 12 months.
Moreover, map.psu.edu lists which paths on the College Park campus are lit at night time, underneath the “well being and security” filter. Moreover, the Penn State maps web site additionally features a filter to focus on places of automated exterior defibrillators and emergency telephones on each campus.
Perceive the idea of ‘medical amnesty’
The primary steps to keep away from hassle with alcohol are to not drink whereas underage and, for these of authorized age, to at all times use alcohol responsibly.
Nevertheless, Penn State coverage and Pennsylvania regulation each shield underage people who make a report out of concern for the protection and well-being of a buddy.
Underneath Pennsylvania’s Medical Amnesty Regulation and Penn State’s “Accountable Motion Protocol,” if somebody calls the authorities out of concern for one more particular person affected by an alcohol or drug overdose, each the caller and the particular person in want of medical care are shielded from authorized or disciplinary repercussions if the caller fairly believes they’re the primary to name, offers their title, and stays with the particular person in want of medical consideration till authorities arrive.
Beckenbaugh mentioned {that a} pupil who calls authorities, and the particular person in want of consideration, wouldn’t be in hassle, however as a substitute would obtain assist and academic assets to study from the incident and make higher private selections shifting ahead.
“In a scenario the place somebody could also be affected by alcohol poisoning or an overdose, our first precedence is at all times saving that particular person’s life — not getting anybody into hassle,” Beckenbaugh mentioned.
Perceive the significance of consent and what constitutes sexual assault
Sexual assault sadly does happen on faculty campuses throughout the nation, with a big proportion of these assaults occurring within the first weeks of the semester as new college students are adjusting to school life.
The College affords steering to all college students on understanding consent, the significance of acquiring consent earlier than sexual exercise, and assets out there to survivors of sexual assault.
If you’re ever the sufferer of sexual assault, Penn State has assets out there to assist and empower survivors. The Gender Fairness Middle affords confidential counseling and advocacy, and may help survivors navigate the reporting and prison justice course of in the event that they select to take action. Counseling and Psychological Providers additionally affords confidential counseling and remedy, together with disaster intervention companies. The Workplace of Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response, whereas not a confidential useful resource just like the earlier two and topic to Title IX reporting necessities, affords methods to report sexual misconduct, assets for victims, and knowledge for learn how to assist survivors of sexual assault. Survivors can also report the crime of sexual assault to College Police and Public Security.
Report hazing
Hazing is prohibited and towards College coverage. Scholar security is a prime precedence at Penn State, and the College will examine each allegation of hazing to the fullest extent potential. Any particular person or group discovered answerable for hazing is topic to College self-discipline that will embody expulsion from Penn State or termination of College employment.
To report cases of hazing by a person or inside any College-affiliated or acknowledged group or group, contact the Workplace of Ethics and Compliance, the Workplace of Scholar Accountability and Battle Response (previously the Workplace of Scholar Conduct), or the Penn State Hotline, or submit a report by an nameless on-line kind. In an emergency, name 911 or contact College Police.
Be careful for one another
“What it actually comes right down to, on the finish of the day, is that we’re all Penn Staters — and it’s as much as every of us to be careful for one another,” Beckenbaugh mentioned. “So, if you happen to see one thing that appears misplaced or that’s suspicious or regarding, say one thing.”
Should you see one thing suspicious or regarding, don’t hesitate to name police to report it. Police are in a greater place to evaluate and reply to a possible incident the earlier it’s reported. Contact police straight and keep away from reporting incidents by social media channels, which aren’t monitored 24/7 and never supposed for emergency communication.
You may as well make reviews to the Penn State Behavioral Menace Administration Group, which investigates reviews of people who could also be a hazard to themselves or others. For extra info, together with indicators of potential concern, go to btmt.psu.edu.
Know what assets can be found to you
If a pupil is ever victimized or assaulted, there are various Penn State assets out there to assist and empower that pupil.
The Workplace of Scholar Accountability and Battle Response helps college students and investigates reviews of misconduct; the Gender Fairness Middle and the Workplace of Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response assist survivors of sexual assault; Counseling and Psychological Providers affords psychological well being companies and remedy; and the Workplace of Scholar Care and Advocacy works with companions throughout campus to assist college students impacted by traumatic or surprising occasions. Penn State College Police and Public Security additionally has a devoted sufferer useful resource officer and affords a variety of assets for victims.
College students can also profit from Scholar Authorized Providers, the Multicultural Useful resource Middle, the Middle for Non secular and Moral Improvement, and the Middle for Sexual and Gender Variety, all of which supply a variety of assets and programming.
“Being a pupil is an thrilling and vital time in your life, usually with many alternative priorities to juggle,” Beckenbaugh mentioned. “However your first precedence ought to at all times be your security and well-being. Staying protected and wholesome is the inspiration that lets you obtain all your different targets, and your entire Penn State group is right here to assist and assist you.”
