Campus Safety

This is the second in a series of monthly Campus Safety articles with University Police Officer Johnny Coxum.

In case of emergency, look for a blue light

Help is always only a phone call away. And there are many ways to reach University Police in case of emergency.

The most visible method of contacting the University Police Department on campus is the blue light phone system. Across campus, there are 53 of these well-lit call boxes designated with a bright blue light.

With just the push of a button, the phones dial directly to the University Police Department’s 911 emergency line. Officer Johnny Coxum said that dialing 911 from any campus phone will connect the caller with the University Police Department. He also encourages campus community members to program the department’s emergency number into their cell phones.

The call boxes are installed in areas of high pedestrian traffic across campus, including outside of the Athletic and Wellness Center, in the Route 32 parking lot and outside of many of the residence halls. According to K.C. Stevens (Telecommunications), a phone can be seen from most locations on campus.

In addition, each campus building has an exterior telephone and all campus residence halls have direct-ring emergency telephones in the entrance of each building.

The blue light phones are maintained by the Telecommunications office on campus. The office should be contacted at x4357 if an emergency telephone is found to be out of service or appears to have been vandalized or to initiate a request for an emergency telephone.