FAQ

The Office of Campus Safety is dedicated to ensuring a secure and supportive environment. Our approach to safety is rooted in collaboration, service, and proactive engagement with students, faculty, staff, and guests.

We believe that a safe campus is built on strong relationships. We pride ourselves in being approachable and actively engaging with the campus community, responding to concerns with care, and providing support beyond traditional enforcement. While safety is our top priority, much of our work is centered on quality of life calls rather than being enforcement-focused. Our officers provide essential support, including transporting students to the Hoaglin Wellness Center when they are sick or injured, providing lockout assistance, and offering walking or driving escorts.

We also work closely with the campus community to manage risk, ensure vehicular access through our parking program, and provide security for special events, guest speakers, and artists. Our officers regularly secure buildings and monitor critical safety systems, including fire alarms and intrusion detection, while also partnering with campus departments to maintain essential life safety systems such as sprinklers, smoke detectors, and fire extinguishers.

Education and preparedness are at the heart of our mission. We conduct biannual fire drills in all residence halls and actively collaborate with students and staff to promote awareness and safety best practices.

At the Office of Campus Safety, we see ourselves as partners in creating a welcoming and secure environment. By working together, we can build a campus where safety is a shared responsibility and every member of our community feels supported.

Student health and safety are of primary concern at Denison University. As such, in cases of intoxication and/or alcohol poisoning, students are encouraged to seek medical assistance for themselves or others. If a student seeks medical attention due to their level of intoxication or another person seeks medical attention for that student, the Office of Community Values and Student Conduct will not pursue conduct sanctions against that student for violations of the Student Code of Conduct that specifically relate to alcohol and its use.

Additionally, students who assist in obtaining medical attention for other individuals who are intoxicated will not receive conduct sanctions for violations of alcohol policies of the Student Code of Conduct. The Office of Campus Safety reports how the person seeking Medical Amnesty was discovered or how they requested assistance. Our office does not decide who receives protection under this policy.

Campus Safety and other authorized officials have the right to enter your room at any time. However, as a standard practice, we do not enter rooms arbitrarily. In most situations, our officers will request permission to enter or ask a resident to step into the hallway for a conversation. We typically only enter a room when there is a valid reason to do so.

If there is a health or safety concern, we may enter a room without consent. Additionally, if we request to speak with a resident and no one identifies themselves, we may enter to ensure that non-residents vacate the space. In many cases, we enter rooms only when we are unable to engage with residents or when the concerning behavior persists despite our presence. When necessary, we will direct all non-residents to leave the premises.

Campus Safety officers will only give students direction when acting within the scope of their assigned duties. The Student Code of Conduct requires students to comply with our directions. Additionally, the Director of Campus Safety is a sworn police officer so any direction given by the Director may have additional compliance requirements under Ohio Law.

Campus Safety personnel are not interested in unnecessarily interfering in students’ lives. However, we must investigate safety concerns or policy violations that come to our attention. Below are important steps you can take to prevent unnecessary Campus Safety involvement at your gatherings.

Best Practices for Hosting a Safe and Responsible Gathering

1. Know Your Space Limitations – Before hosting an event, determine the maximum number of people approved to safely fit in your space. An overcrowded gathering that spills into hallways or outdoor areas is more likely to draw attention from Security staff.
2. Plan Your Guest List – Open-invitation parties often become larger than expected, making it difficult to manage the crowd and increasing the likelihood of Security involvement. Invite only those you intend to have at your event.
3. Communicate with Your Neighbors – Speak with your neighbors before your event so they know how to contact you if any issues arise. They are less likely to call Safety if they can reach you first to address concerns.
4. Designate a Party Spokesperson – This includes Safe Event Monitors (SEM’s) for registered events but could just be a responsible resident to act as the point of contact for Campus Safety staff for a gathering in your room. This person should assist in managing the event if intervention is necessary.
5. Cooperate with Campus Safety Staff – If we respond to your gathering, cooperate fully. Noncompliance will not help your situation and may escalate the response.

Examples of when GPD may be called include, but are not limited to, the following reasons:

• If we have a person who has no Denison affiliation and they are not accompanied by a host and they are being disruptive we might call GPD to handle the incident.
• If we are unable to identify the person we are dealing with for a behavioral issue. GPD can assist in identifying people and can manage non-student visitors who have violated the law.
• If anyone is threatened or a crime of violence is committed.
• When we identify anyone driving while intoxicated.
• Any time someone is failing to cooperate or do what we are requesting them to do.
• Whenever a crime has been reported to us and the victim wants the police contacted.
• Whenever we receive a report of behavior that would be considered a felony under Ohio law.

This is an interesting question. There are two kinds of Safety staff. We have monitors and officers. The monitors are assigned to the residential areas of campus and work between the hours of 8pm and 4am. They work on foot in all the residence halls. These are the staff students are most likely to see. So this means that the majority of staff work during the times where students are most active, and have the least amount of structured activity.

All campus safety departments deploy most of their staff during the times in which most of the activities that are problematic take place. I think the fact that we have staff assigned to specific residential areas is why students believe security is always around. So to answer the question, why is security always around it is mainly because we need to be available to handle incidents that arise during the busy times of the night and early morning hours. It does not make good sense to have staff working when students are in classes or are asleep.

If you feel that you were not treated with respect or that an incident was not handled appropriately, you are encouraged to file a complaint with the Director of Safety. Our office is located on the entry level of the parking garage. A formal complaint process is in place to ensure concerns are addressed properly. Please note that filing a complaint does not impact any student conduct or law enforcement action resulting from the incident.