FGCU UPD held a safety walk in collaboration with the FGCU Student Government on Dec. 1. The walk uncovered lighting deficiencies around campus and tested the updated Code Blue Pole system. 

“A lot of what we were looking for had to do with student safety when walking at night, specifically lighting and light features,” Said Robert Krampen, FGCU Student Government’s chief of staff for the executive branch. 

FGCU’s University Police Department (UPD) intends to act swiftly on the findings. UPD outreach officer Christine Hoffman plans to forward her group’s findings to the proper channels at FGCU. Each group tackled a different section of the school’s campus and will forward their reports to the appropriate channels, such as the FGCU Physical Plant. 

“The biggest thing my group saw tonight was lighting issues,” said Hoffman. “So just making sure those lightbulbs get changed out and that they’re getting marked, hopefully that’s something that can get changed quickly.”

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The event was inspired by a safety seminar attended by UPD Chief Kowalski, when he learned other universities were implementing safety walks across the state. UPD approached student government about the idea, where they learned that they were already taking steps to improve lighting conditions on campus.

“We had 10 volunteers from the FGCU Student Government who were able to come out,” said Hoffman. “We reached out to athletics and several other departments and we were able to get some volunteers from all those departments as well, that were able to go out with our groups and find safety concerns on campus.”

Another point of interest on the safety walk was the updated Code Blue Pole system around FGCU’s campus. 

The system consists of over a dozen tall blue poles that serve as lifelines for those in need of assistance on campus. The poles have a button and an intercom, which, when pressed, puts the person in contact with UPD dispatch. The poles also have a camera so the dispatcher can monitor the person on the line.

“I definitely got to shout out UPD for fixing the poles on campus where you can tap them and call UPD. I think that’s amazing,” Krampen said. “I think it’s a great program, I think we should do it more in the future and maybe get some more people out here.”

During the walk, UPD officers tested the functionality of different poles by triggering them to ensure they were properly connected to dispatch and that communication was clear. Both UPD and the student government were pleased with the results of the safety walk.

“All the campus blue poles were replaced with a newer, better model and everyone said that their Code Blue Poles worked,” said Hoffman.