It’s official: Labor Day has come and gone, and fall is in the air. Many of us parents are sending our kids off to college—some for the first time. And among all the things we’ve got to think about, from making sure our new collegiate have the right textbooks, to buying sheets, to updating the laptop, one surely looms larger than others: safety.

Now that our kids are living away from home, making sure they know how to stay safe is even more important than it was before. But even those of us who work in public safety don’t always think of every little thing they can do that will help them in an emergency—or, even better, help them prevent an emergency.

Public safety is vital to us here at KOVA—after all, our business is public safety software solutions. So to help you out, we want to share this list of 10 vital public safety tips that to pass on to your college student (and if you’ve got younger children, check out our safety tips for being around school buses and for the outdoors).

1. Make sure your student has the Campus Police number in his phone. This may seem like a no-brainer to you, but you’d be surprised how many students don’t know how to reach their school’s campus police. To make sure they have it, look up the number yourself and text it to them. That way, even if they forget or neglect to put it into their contacts, they’ll be able to find it through a quick search.
2. Remind them that technology can make you oblivious. This is hugely important—we’ve all experienced the total zone-out that can happen when we’re browsing Facebook, checking Twitter, or listening to a podcast while we’re walking or out in public. Not only do you increase your chances of accidents—being hit by a car, running into a bicyclist—you also greatly increase the chance of not noticing potentially dangerous situations. Staying alert and aware of your surroundings goes a long way in preventing emergencies.
3. Keep emergency cash on hand. While this is an obvious one for anyone over the age of forty, young people—even young adults—rarely have cash. But it’s important to remind them that credit cards and debit cards can fail or get lost, and you never want to be stuck somewhere iffy just because you don’t have cash for a cab.
4. Use locks. College campuses generally feel like, and are, very safe places. That’s wonderful. Still, make sure your student knows that it’s important to lock their dorm room and their car.
5. Educate themselves. Most, if not every, college public safety organization offers some kind of self-defense class. Encourage your student to take advantage of it, and to pay attention to public safety tips and alerts that her school sends out. CPR and First Aid classes are also regular campus safety offerings, and are great resources for your student.
6. Ensure they have emergency contacts programmed in their phones. If someone is admitted to a hospital alone, hospital staff always checks the person’s smartphone—they’re able to bypass any codes in order to see emergency contacts.
7. Make sure they locate emergency call boxes on campus. These strategically located call boxes will allow them to call public safety if they’re without a phone or they see something suspicious. If they’re out alone at night, they can use the call boxes to ask for a campus escort.
8. If they see someone in trouble, call Public Safety immediately. It may be too dangerous to intervene, but one thing your student can always do is call the police. It could mean the difference between an attempted crime and an actual one.
9. If they see that their room has been broken into, do not go inside. If the intruder is still there, it could be dangerous for them to enter. Instead, they should go to a neighbor and call Public Safety from there.
10. Don’t allow strangers to follow them into residence halls or student facilities that require a keycard. Students get keycards for a reason—to keep people with no connection to the college from entering student buildings. Make sure they know to keep track of their keycard at all times.

College is an exciting time for both you and your student (though probably more for your student if you’re suffering from an empty nest!). Ensure that it’s also a safe time by sharing these public safety tips with your student.If you’re a public safety professional, we hope this list jumpstarts your own ideas of safety tips to help make college a happy, healthy, and safe experience. And if your Public Safety Answering Point is in need of an upgrade, contact KOVA today and ask about our public safety software solutions.

Sources:

https://gustavus.edu/safety/tips/crime.php

http://www.up.edu/publicsafety/default.aspx?cid=12103&