The Public Safety Center, which houses Lake Forest College’s security department, has recently moved from Middle Campus to South Campus, opening up several new benefits.
“[We are] providing a continuous and visible campus-wide presence to deter crime and maintain a safe environment,” Director of Public Safety Richard Cohen said.
One major benefit the Public Safety Center now has is an emergency generator. The Center’s technological equipment will be fully functional in the event of a power loss on campus.
In addition, the new location offers handicap accessibility. In its previous location on Middle Campus, the Public Safety Center was accessed only by climbing a couple of flights of stairs. The new building has ground-floor access.
In the event of an emergency, public safety officers are now able to stay on campus. “We can now effectively operate and accommodate members of the Crisis Management Team for extended periods of time, should the need arise,” Cohen said.
Turning a residential space into a fully functioning, emergency facility was a combined effort. “Facilities Management, with support from LIT and Aramark, did a superb job,” Cohen said.
Because Public Safety never closes, the dispatch/ communications functions had to transition smoothly. All calls for service or assistance had to be answered throughout the transition. “To accomplish this, on the ‘cut-over’ day, we were operating two dispatch locations until the new one was completely operational,” Cohen said.
“I called Public Safety during this transition near the end of the summer and the officer answered my call immediately,” a third-year student said. “She was very positive and helpful.”
The Public Safety Center transition had to be completed over the summer, and it was successfully accomplished. The only inconvenience with the Center being located on South Campus is for students who need to get a temporary ID to eat in the caf, or sign out a key. However, the vast majority of students carry their ID anyway. As for the key sign-out problem, Public Safety is working with the Art Department to find alternatives to resolve the hindrance.
All in all, Public Safety spends most of their time out in the field to make sure that the students of Lake Forest College have a safe environment to live in. “I believe we currently have an outstanding security program in place,” Cohen said.
Lastly, Cohen said he wanted to , “I want to publicly thank my Public Safety staff for enduring some pretty difficult conditions through this process.
To [also]thank President Schutt and his senior staff for their approval of the renovation project, and to Facilities Management, LIT, and Aramark for all their hard work that created the new Public Safety Center.”
