Katherine D’Emic ’06 usually feels safe on campus. Yet for a couple weeks, there were times when she was nervous walking to her townhouse.
Several weeks ago, the blue safety light outside The Levee, near her townhouse, went out of service, causing D’Emic to feel uneasy.
“I walk home from the library some nights after midnight,” said D’Emic. “The way to my house is dark, wooded and quiet.”
“Even though I’ve never had a problem or used one of the Code Blue phones, it was reassuring to know it was there in case something did happen,” she said.
The exact date the phone outside The Levee broke is unknown. According to Frank Ficko, associate director of Public Safety, it was sometime around the start of the semester.
“It was an intermittent problem where it would operate sporadically,” Ficko said. “At one time, the vendor arrived to check the phone but could not recreate the problem.”
“To ensure no further problems, the vendor replaced the entire system,” he said.
According to Ficko, the vendor fixed the phone on Oct. 20.
However, many students feel the phone should have been fixed sooner, because of the potentially life or death importance of the system.
“I feel like things on campus get fixed pretty quickly,” D’Emic said. “This took a long time and it was a really important thing to fix. I think it took too long.”
Katie Phelps ’08 agreed with D’Emic.
“It seems like there are a lot of upperclassmen that go to The Levee,” she said. “It’s in a more secluded part of campus and in the dark. If someone needed help, they might not be able to get it.”
According to Ficko, Public Safety checks the phones daily and was waiting for the parts from the vendor to arrive in order to fix the phone.
“We stumbled upon this particular problem in a routine check,” Ficko said. “And we are currently replacing parts on two other phones that remain in service.”
Fairfield University has 15 emergency Code Blue phones located throughout campus, all of which are mapped out on the last page of the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Crime Statistics.
Locations include all residential complexes like the Quad, Village and Townhouses, Dolan Hall and outside the Quick Center.
“The phones are spaced accordingly in traveled and secluded areas,” Ficko said. “We look upon the phone boxes as a tool that we use to help keep campus safe.”
“If the phone is activated, Public Safety immediately gets dispatched to the area and the surveillance cameras on campus focus in on that particular area,” Ficko said. “Public Safety expects a response time of one to two minutes.”
According to Ficko, the phones are intended for true emergency use only, such as witnessing an accident or seeing a suspicious person.
If a student would like an escort or a ride from Public Safety in case they don’t feel safe walking by themselves, they should call the office but don’t use the Code Blue phones which are to be used only in cases of real emergencies.
However, true emergencies are not very common on campus.
“We only see a handful of true emergencies come through on the Code Blue phones,” Ficko said. “They mostly include motor vehicle accidents or medical related athletic injuries.”
“We’d much rather get a call and learn we were not needed than to have someone overlook a situation,” said Ficko.
Students feel that the use of the Code Blue phones should be encouraged so that students feel comfortable using them if they really need to, knowing that Public Safety will swiftly come to their assistance.
“What’s the point of having them if students are unsure of when they can or can’t use them?” said D’Emic.
“If I felt unsafe and there was no one else around, I would want to be able to get any kind of help,” Phelps said, “not just if it was a true emergency. You can never be too safe. I would rather use the phone than hesitate to do so and potentially get hurt.”
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