The FAMU police department held its first Campus Safety Walk on Wednesday.
“The annual Campus Safety Walk is basically an assessment of our campus to ensure that we have the accurate lighting and protection here on campus,” said FAMU PD Officer Erica Herring, who facilitated the event.
Around 50 attendees comprising students, faculty, staff and members of the community came to the event.
“Because FAMU is an open campus, there definitely is a need to bring awareness to some of the issues we may fall short on,” Herring said.
Herring divided the attendees into groups of four and assigned each group to a zone to find any “dead zones” or places with little to no lighting.
The zones included old FAMU DRS, the School of Journalism and Graphic Communication, Jackson Davis Hall and the pharmacy buildings.
Participants received a school safety and security audit that included a survey and instructions on how to conduct the audit.
People examined any areas of their zones that looked suspicious or where they thought something bad could happen.
Herring explained that students need a voice on this campus and need to be involved and take back the campus.
Ronald Carter, a fourth-year business student from Hollywood, Fla., knows how important campus safety is to his university experience.
“Safety should be one of the school’s major priorities,” Carter said. “Last year, FAMU was on the most dangerous list for college campuses, as well as FSU.
“Students should come out. Students are always talking about what’s wrong with the campus, so this gives them an opportunity to fix it.”
Elijah Hall, a sophomore psychology student from Jacksonville, attended the event because he wanted to know what precautions to take in case something bad happens.
Herring said that once the data is collected, the information would be sent to the police chief and then to Interim President Larry Robinson.
“We want you to feel like this is your home away from home,” Herring said.