The SGA understands the concerns of the student body with the new campus police and want to ensure that each organization, the police officers and the student government have a strong connection moving forward with the transition.

Officer Debra Patch, one of the certified campus officers, gave the SGA executive board a tour of the new public safety facility and answered questions. The SGA also met with David Tedjeske, Director of Public Safety, to ask about the facility, the new features it has and working with the SGA.

“I really love working with SGA and any of the student groups,” Tedjeske said. “For me, personally, most of my job doesn’t involve working directly with students and I kind of miss that. It’s an opportunity, because I can sit here and read The Villanovan or read my email and get one perspective on campus life. However, it is certainly helpful for me to interact with students more frequently to get a sense of what life looks like through their lens.” 

SGA board members learned about the new safety features, such as new security around campus, new locker rooms for the officers on duty and new technology that allows officers to help students more efficiently like finger printing machines.

“My favorite room in the facility is the conference room, because we’ve never had one before,” Tedjeske said. “There’s always something going on in the conference room, which is really cool to see.  Whether there are job interviews or meetings with other departments or just any variety of things, it shows me that the place is vibrant.” 

The group also learned about a new feature to the campus safety called NOVAsafe, a smartphone application that enables students to send anonymous videos and pictures to public safety.

“I’m a big believer in the public safety app ‘NOVA safe’,” Tedjeske said, “because it enables anonymous reporting and allows students to upload videos, pictures, and things like that. It is a great tool to encourage reporting.”

In addition to safety, SGA asked the officers what role the Radnor Police played in the upgrade in campus security.  Public safety assured students that the Radnor Police station will only be contacted and utilized for extreme cases due to individuals requiring a “holding cell.” This option offers security personnel the ability to place someone in a room without supervision, as opposed to a facility where an individual would have to be supervised under the watch of a campus 

police officer. Public Safety, however, has not contacted the Radnor Police at all this year and they hope to keep it that way.  

Officer Tedjeske said, “I would much rather see things prevented then to have us get involved in something after it happens.”

 

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