Abstract
We are now over a year into the COVID‐19 pandemic, and we are not sure how much longer the virus will be with us.
Since the pandemic first started in the early part of 2020, we have learned much, but there are still so many unanswered questions. Doctors and scientists have learned much about the virus over the past year, but there still is much that is unknown. We have no idea how the new variants that continue to evolve will affect even those who have been vaccinated.
The words quarantine, isolation, social distance, and COVID‐19 have become as common as breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Not a day goes by that we do not hear a tragic story of someone who contracted this deadly disease and is either on a respirator fighting for their life or who has succumbed to the virus.
Now with vaccines available and many people vaccinated, we are hopeful that we may soon see the world in a different place than we were a year ago.
While it is widely known the pandemic devastated businesses, and that many individuals lost their jobs, colleges and universities were not immune and were also greatly impacted. Many institutions downsized their work force, by either furloughing workers or eliminating positions.
Budgets were reduced as tuition and room and board revenue was down.
Department staff who continued to be employed worked remotely, and many campus operations had little or no physical presence on campus. Once vibrant and bustling campuses became ghost towns, with limited numbers of students, staff, and faculty on site, as Zoom became the new way to learn.
The one constant on campus was that members of the public safety departments continued to report to work on a daily basis and still had to handle and respond to all calls.
This was not a challenge as officers know that even with a pandemic, being visible on campus and responding to calls is part of their job.
Officers were not able to work remotely nor could they choose not respond to a call.
Officers took many precautions, and personal protective equipment became a regular addition to their uniforms.
Since officers were the few staff members remaining on campus, many additional duties were added to their plates, such as handling facilities calls, transporting test specimens to labs, and even delivering food to students living on campus in quarantine or isolation.
Since most of the campus and buildings were empty, officers also had to do more frequent patrols of buildings and campus areas. Broken water pipes and leaks, unauthorized access, or even break‐ins could happen at any time, and without increased vigilance, might lead to more damage.
Officers also had to be vigilant with the difficulties that mask‐wearing could create. For example, with everyone wearing a mask, sometimes officers were not able to identify everyone by sight and even determine if the person belonged on campus.
Even with reduced numbers of students living in the residence halls, officers still had to enter the building and interact with the students, which could lead to exacerbated anxiety. Officers constantly had to wonder who, of the individuals they dealt with that day, might have the virus. So, what lessons have campus safety officers learned from this pandemic?
To me, the biggest take‐away when it comes to public safety and the pandemic is that officers showed, once more, how indispensable they are to college and university campuses. Campus safety and security officers were the staff who were forced to put their own individual safety on the line each and every day.
Despite that, I know of not one officer who refused to come to work, or to handle any assignment. They risked their own health, but as always, the professionalism of the officers shined brightly.
To all the officers who worked throughout the pandemic keeping our colleges and universities safe, I applaud you and thank you.
Hopefully we are nearing the end of the pandemic and the stressors we faced during it will fade. Unfortunately, there are many other concerns that we will continue to face on a regular basis, but I know that with the dedication of the officers, we are up to the challenge and will continue to provide a safe living and learning environment on all of our campuses.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR.
DAVID MILES
David Miles is the Director of Public Safety for the Metropolitan Campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey. He has held this position since 1984. He is a graduate of the 64th class of Union County Police Academy in New Jersey and holds both bachelor's and master's degrees from Fairleigh Dickinson University. His column appears regularly in Campus Security Report.