Safety and Security details additional measures taken to keep the campus community safe.
Haverford College has significantly enhanced its capacity to keep students safe on campus. The tragedy at Virginia Tech this past spring underscored the importance of investing in campus safety and confirmed the value of the investments we've already made.
A cornerstone of our effort is educating our campus about the importance of what we call 'shelter in place': stay inside, lock your door, stay away from windows, don't come out until told it is safe. We've also taken several additional steps to complement that most basic of responses in the event of an emergency:
Emergency Notification Systems – We have installed an audible alert system which is essentially a very loud siren. This system will only be used in life threatening emergencies and will be audible all across campus. Upon hearing the siren, students and the college community are asked to lock doors and windows and to shelter in place until they hear an all-clear signal. Verbal instructions will be announced over a public address system, which will be heard on all parts of the campus. The siren system will be tested at regular intervals.
In addition, we are in the process of installing an electronic notification network which will include E-mail, text messages, and voice messaging.
Table Top Emergency Exercise - We conducted a hostile intruder tabletop exercise with key campus administrators last fall. In addition, we have worked closely with the Special Response Teams of the Haverford and Lower Merion Police Departments to develop protocols for responding to a hostile intruder scenario.
The Haverford Police SRT and the Township Emergency Management Coordinator were on campus touring our campus buildings last winter, and they are planning a tabletop exercise here on campus in the near future. They have blueprints of all of our buildings, and most importantly, they each have one another's radio frequencies programmed into our radios, thereby ensuring that the response to an incident would be timely and well coordinated.
Card Access – All of the perimeter doors to dorms and many academic and recreation spaces have card access.
Closed Circuit Television Cameras (CCTV) and Emergency Phones – CCTV cameras were installed in the rear of the Haverford College Apartments in 2004. There are a total of 45 ‘Blue Light' emergency phones on campus, with similar phones located outside of every dorm entrance. In the event of an emergency, students can activate the phones which automatically contact Safety and Security.
