It takes the combined efforts of security officers and members of a university community to ensure a safe campus, which is critical to student success. As such, Kent State University at Trumbull continues to ensure that its students, faculty, staff and other community members enjoy a safe and healthy environment.
Only one physical altercation was reported in 2017. Gary Bateman, security and safety manager at Kent State Trumbull, says 26 reports were made last year. A majority of those were either a medical emergency or fender bender in the parking lot.
“We take great pride in providing a safe environment for our students and staff,” Bateman says. “Because of job changes, we were down a few (security) officers for the better part of the year. However, our campus is like a huge family, and our faculty and staff look out for students and help us maintain a high level of security.”
This spring, the campus plans to replace the security officers who left last year and add a part-time mental health counselor. The campus already employs a full-time counselor to work with students in crisis. In addition, a Care Team was assembled last year as a cross-divisional crisis management committee that will collaboratively assess and coordinate a response to students identified as reasonably posing a potential threat to self, others or the university community.
As an eight-campus system, Kent State has been ranked one of the safest campuses in the country by the National Council for Home Safety and Security, a trade association. Kent State was named to the council’s 2017 top 100 list of Safest Colleges in America.
According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting and the National Center for Education Statistics, Kent State ranks 11th on the list nationally, and among Ohio institutions, Kent State ranks the safest.