“We’re committed to learning all we can from this tragic event and doing what we can to make the University of Utah as safe as possible. Our campus community deserves nothing less.”
— President Ruth V. Watkins
The University of Utah has an unwavering commitment to being an inclusive, respectful and safe community for all who work, study and visit our campus. There is no place for violence on our campus.
After the tragic incident on campus two weeks ago, we want to remind students, faculty and staff about the SafeU website, which is one part of a broader institutional effort to prioritize and foster a culture of safety on campus. It provides easily accessible and comprehensive information on a range of topics—from how to report a sexual assault or bias incident to where to learn about various trainings to how to access a variety of counseling services.
In an email to campus on Friday, Nov. 2, President Ruth V. Watkins updated the U community about the establishment of an independent review team tasked with conducting two reviews: One into the university police department’s handling of the Lauren McCluskey case and the other evaluating overall campus safety. In the letter, she reiterated the university’s commitment to “learning, taking actions that enhance safety and security and, in every possible way, preventing something like this from happening again on our campus.” She goes on to say that we do not need to wait for the results of the independent reviews in order to make changes to make campus safer. She has asked campus leaders to work within their areas to review policies, procedures and training related to safety in order to make immediate changes, if needed.
In 2017, the U created a task force on campus safety and asked it to look at whether the university was doing all it could to promote campus safety. Among the recommendations was an initiative to establish a centralized, standalone comprehensive safety website that would include a list of available trainings.
Below is a summary of some of the trainings and resources offered by various entities at the U. More trainings, resources and their descriptions can be found at SafeU.utah.edu/training.
Students:
- Student and family orientation (provides information about crime statistics, self-defense, alcohol issues, bystander intervention, rape aggression defense class, after-dark escorts, e-phones, campus alerts, student conduct process, etc.)
- Wellness Advocate certificate
- Online community standards courses for new students
- International student presentations
- Alcohol risk reduction
- Anti-discrimination and Title IX trainings
- Fraternity and Sorority life
Staff and faculty:
- Recognizing and responding to students in distress
- Employee Assistance Program
- Campus staff and faculty safety meetings
- Office of Inclusive Excellence trainings
- Emergency preparedness training