The blue light station between Swan Business Center and Plassmann Hall
Morgan Kilger/The Bona Venture
BY: MORGAN KILGER, NEWS ASSIGNMENT EDITOR
Roslyn Stein, a sophomore public health major, said she feels safe at St. Bonaventure University. Stein said the blue light safety stations and the emergency phones are a major player.
“I feel safe [at Bonaventure],” said Stein. “This year, I’ve seen a lot more security in their cars as well as their golf carts. They seem to be patrolling the campus, especially at night.”
According to Gary Segrue, Bonaventure’s head of Safety and Security, the blue light safety stations are intended for people on campus to be able to directly contact security officers in the event of an emergency. Similar institutions, like Nazareth College, use these systems as well.
There are 23 of these stations scattered throughout Bonaventure’s campus. Twenty of the stations are metallic or yellow phones that are attached to buildings, and the other three are blue towers with a call button inside of them.
However, many students said these phones can easily be missed.
“I knew of the one [station] near the Shay and Loughlin parking lot,” said Stein. “I thought that was one of the only few that were on campus.”
There are three blue light towers on the west end of campus. They are located in the commuter parking lots and the parking lot behind Shay and Loughlin halls.
There is also a blue light phone inside the rest stop located on Clare Road toward the east end of campus.
These phones, despite their main purpose to be for emergencies, haven’t been used in the past ten years to report a crime, said Segrue.
“Since I’ve been here, they [the emergency phones] have never been used to report a crime or an emergency,” said Segrue.
The Bonnies Connect App can also be used as a way to contact Safety and Security. Stein said she is likely to use the Bonnies Connect App in case of an emergency over the stations.
“It’s right on my phone, and I can easily access it,” said Stein. “If I were in an area on campus and I didn’t know where the station was, or if I wasn’t near one, I’d use my phone.”
The Bonnies Connect App has a shield icon in the upper-righthand corner of its home page. By pressing the icon, the user gets put on the phone with Safety and Security.
Even though the Bonnies Connect App is an option, Segrue feels that it is necessary to keep the phones around campus. He believes that if the stations are an option for students, they will feel safer.
“People expect it to be there,” said Sergue. “And when you expect that it’s there, they’ll feel safer.”
Nazareth College, a private non-profit school of 2,000 undergraduate students located in Rochester, uses the blue light stations on their campus as well. They provide these stations for their students to be able to contact their security office 24/7.
Julia Owczarkowski, a sophomore communication sciences and disorders major at Nazareth, feels that she is safe with Nazareth’s plan.
“I feel safe on campus [Nazareth] with the safety lights and the app,” said Owczarkowski.
Nazareth has a similar app to the Bonnies Connect App called the Naz App.
The Naz App also is used to get in touch with safety officers. In contrast to the Bonnies Connect App, the Naz App has a feature to fill out incident reports before security arrives.
Owczarkowski said she is more likely to use the Naz App over the stations.
“I’m more likely to use the app in an emergency, opposed to finding a station nearby,” said Owczarkowski.
Segrue said that the app is the reason that the current towers and phones are not being updated at Bonaventure.
“We have cellphones,” said Segrue. “Everybody has a blue light right in the palm of their hand.”
Even though the stations will remain active on campus, Segrue said there are no plans to update the stations or add additional towers across Bonaventure’s campus.
