{"id":269861,"date":"2026-08-22T00:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T00:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/269861\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T00:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T00:36:08","slug":"pitt-rolls-out-new-safety-app-as-students-return-to-campus-next-week-wpxi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/269861\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitt rolls out new safety app as students return to campus next week \u2013 WPXI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">PITTSBURGH \u2014 As University of Pittsburgh students return to campus for the start of classes Monday, the university is rolling out a new app designed to make it easier to access safety resources and report concerns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">PittSAFE replaces the university\u2019s former Rave Guardian application and is described as a hub for campus safety information, emergency communications, support services and notifications.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The app allows users to call Pitt police, quickly access 911, view emergency alerts and preparedness information, and report safety concerns. Users also can start a live chat with Pitt police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s a very smart idea,\u201d Pitt student Jake Artman said. \u201cI thought the layout of it was very intuitive, easy to use. So if you\u2019re ever in an emergency, it would be very easy to report something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">One feature allows users to activate campus Blue Light emergency assistance from their phones, alerting police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The app also includes personal safety tools, including a safety timer for check-ins, a Friend Walk feature that allows users to share their location with trusted contacts and a virtual walk-home feature. Users can also send an \u201cI\u2019m OK!\u201d notification to friends and family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Pitt already sends emergency notifications by text, but some students said those messages can get lost among other texts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cI feel like students are more likely to look at an app than random text messages,\u201d said student Blessings Gantt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">PittSAFE also includes campus maps, navigation resources, student support services, Panther Central information, gameday resources, and campus-specific information.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Pitt officials emphasize that downloading PittSAFE does not automatically subscribe users to the university\u2019s Emergency Notification Service or Crime Alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 As University of Pittsburgh students return to campus for the start of classes Monday, the university&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[869,139,7814,859,3398,113784,73,75,74,6995,420,860],"class_list":["post-269861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-channel_11","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-ott_news","tag-pitt","tag-pitt_safe","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-rachel_pierce","tag-video","tag-wpxi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}