As of mid-March 2016, the UBC Vancouver campus has doubled the amount of “blue phones” on campus, scattering them strategically. The current number of blue phones now reach a total of 40, and newly installed phones also have built-in security cameras for amplified surveillance. With on-campus assaults being a persistent issue that more students are voicing out about, UBC’s efforts on improving campus safety and wellbeing are gradually on the rise.
So what are campus blue phones? I, like many other UBC students, have more than often ended up just walking past them on the way to class without giving much thought to the tall blue towers. According to UBC Campus Security’s webpage, these structures connect students in need of assistance to the “Campus Security dispatcher” with the push of a red button. The service is also available 24/7. Campus blue phones are one of the many ways that UBC has claimed to be upholding campus security and student wellbeing. With the most recent campus sexual assault on March 25th, and multiple reports of voyeurs in residence areas, questions regarding the effectiveness of UBC’s security system are being raised. How can students help evaluate the current system, as well as its quality and availability?
I’d like to reference how I first encountered the UBC Campus Security services, one that dates back to first year residence life. During both the first floor and residence building meeting of the year, residence advisors had written up Safewalk’s number on the chalkboard in large font, and had advised everybody to add them as a contact (604-822-5355). I had arrived in Vancouver approximately six days ago from another continent for the first time, and the darkness that dawned upon campus after around 5:00pm allowed me to appreciate the fact that UBC had campus-wide, readily-available security services for students. I had heard about the sexual assaults that occurred just a year before I enrolled, so punching in Safewalk’s digits and keeping it safe in my contact list gave me subtle reassurance. However, a little later in the school year, we were told that a man had trespassed into the room of one of the girls that lived on the sixth floor while she was asleep. She was too shocked and scared to do anything on the spot, so she laid still, and thankfully the man left without further consequences.
From UBC blog.
A thought that struck me about Safewalk, blue phones, and other UBC on-campus security services was whether or not I could actually use these security measures when I needed them. The recent addition of blue phones to make the current total of 40 had me noticing that the radiating blue light on these phones were dim and quite unnoticeable in the dark. Now, I could spot them many metres away. To me, campus blue phones had always been a facility that was effective only if I were to be suspecting of my personal safety, but not during a violation of it. I wasn’t confident whether I could run to one fast enough in my state of panic during an attack, and I wasn’t sure if help could get to me in the compressed time frame that I needed it to. Blue phones seem to be of non-immediate help, and I had naturally resorted to improvised precautions when traversing campus alone at night, such as speed-walking, taking out my left earphone bud to make sure I can hear my surroundings, and holding my umbrella stretched out instead of keeping it folded inside my bag, etc.
Awareness and conversation about campus and individual safety between the school and its students is key to opening new solutions to this persistent issue. Students are the ones using the safety facilities and services, so students should be among the first ones to provide suggestions on how they would like to use them. UBC’s efforts deserve applause to an extent; however, in Vice President Louise Cowin’s words, all members of the UBC community should work together proactively to create a safer environment.
For more information about UBC’s campus safety resources, click here. For a detailed map of all blue phones, click here.
If you feel that UBC’s security measures and messaging are (in)adequate, reach out to Her Campus at UBC and tell us what you think: ubc@hercampus.com
(Feature image courtesy of blogs.students.ubc.ca | in-text images courtesy of The Ubyssey, UBC Campus Security)