“When it rains at Longwood, our Lancers, they go to class. They go to the D-Hall. They go to work and they also go to sporting events. Rain doesn’t stop a Lancer.”
That’s what Doug Howell, the associate director for residential operations with Residential and Commuter Life (RCL) said about deciding to not cancel the fifth annual Campus Safety Walk and he was right. Despite the cold and torrential downpour, students and staff still came out for the walk. The event, co-sponsored by the RCL Advisory Board, the Real Estate Foundation and the Longwood University Police Department, is meant for students, staff and faculty members to surveys both on-campus and off-campus areas for unsafe conditions, such as street lights that are dim or out, low hanging trees and uneven sidewalks.
The event normally calls for nine different tour groups to go out to different on-campus and off-campus locations. With the help of their tour guides, each group looks for unsafe conditions and suggests possible solutions. Due to the rain, they decided to focus just on main campus with the smaller groups.
After the tours finished surveying the area, Howell stated that the notes will be compiled into a report and depending on what needs to be done or fixed, a work order will be filed or a submission will be made to university facilities. Past safety walks have helped institute safer conditions on campus, including sidewalk replacement and additions of emergency blue lights and phones. Last year’s safety walk helped install lighting for the Jeffers parking lot.
Howell also stressed the importance of safety for everyone in the Longwood community.
“I want them (students) to be able to know that they have a voice here at Longwood,” said Howell. “We want to make certain that students and all, feel safe here on campus and if there is something that makes them feel unsafe we need to know.”
Howell also added that if at anytime a student, staff or faculty member notices a possibly unsafe condition to let someone, such as campus police, know.
