Valentines Initiative to enhance campus safety

With the spring season approaching, Southwestern Oregon Community College is initiating several programs to help assure campus safety.

The College has been taking a variety of steps from physical campus improvements to educational opportunities – including the newly launched Valentines Initiative, which is designed to help students address relationship issues by focusing on small group, gender-specific discussions about relationships with the opposite gender. These discussions are led by Southwestern counseling faculty members.

An additional relationship education component is being added to Student Orientation activities each fall, and will be augmented by continued mandatory small group discussions throughout the year. In an effort to integrate students’ social education with their academic learning, relationship, social and behavioral issues will be discussed during course sections in certain social science disciplines. College administrators also are exploring the possibility of a Faculty in Residence program.

This is the latest step in the College’s continuing efforts to improve safety for both resident and commuter students on the campus. The College has added two resident directors to the housing staff to supervise student resident advisors and help handle day-to-day issues in student housing. The College also has added another security guard to its staff. At least two security officers are on duty around the clock every weekend on campus.

With the addition of new door locks, increased lighting on campus, removal of underbrush and regular health and safety checks for each student who lives in campus housing, Southwestern is working to prevent unsafe situations for its students. Campus security officers are available to escort students around campus in the evenings, upon request, and the College is near completion of an anonymous reporting form for assaults.

Press Release Date: February 5, 2007