Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 5, 2014)
TH E C L A C K A M A S P R IN T | N O V . 5, 2 0 1 4 | V O L . 48 ISSUE 4 C ampus hopes to improve security By Alberto Hernandez eep. Beep. Beep. The morning “We are searching for strong things,” said Cochran, alarm goes off. A student show “Background in policing, someone that under ers, gets dressed, brushes teeth stands that the college is different. Different demo and finds a way to the Clackamas graphics and we are in the business of education Community College campus. In ... the position is being advertised now. We should the midst of the many routines have someone hired by mid December.” encountered in the morning, one doesn’t usually stop to think: will something bad happen at school At this time, Cochran has stepped in to the posi today? tion of Director of Campus Safety until someone is hired later this year. Although the position is being Are students really protected and secure while be temporarily filled, most students feel a lack of safety ing on campus grounds? Bob Cochran, Dean of while being on campus. Campus Services, has many departments under his wing and one of them is campus safety. “I honestly don’t feel safe when I’m walking on cam pus,” said Tracy Robertson, a CCC student. “I have “My team takes care of the custodial department, a Taser in my purse and when I run, [and] I carry engineering, maintenance, campus safety, duplica pepper spray on a lanyard because you never know what may happen. Even when I’m not running, I tion and the mail room,” Cochran said. carry it around my neck.” B On Oct. 13, the Director of Campus Safety Suzy Isham resigned her position here at CCC for a job opportunity at Oregon Health and Science Univer sity, leaving her current position vacant. Many students feel the same way. “W hen I leave campus late there is usually someone already wait ing for me at the parking lot, but I don’t feel safe,” said Tyra Keet, a student at CCC. “I always carry around a stainless steel water bottle on me so if someone tries to do something, I can hit them with it” Other schools around the area have improved their campus safety. Schools like Portland State Uni versity and University of Oregon have emergency phones on campus, so if someone is in danger, they can push the button and the department of campus safety will be notified. “CCC should have these emergency phone systems on campus, and I feel that it should be a requirement for all large schools to have systems like these,” said Hi’Shale Brown, a student at CCC. “It’s not like high school when we are all in the same building. There are many buildings here and the campus closes a lot later.” Photo contributed by Jaime Dunkle Christine Burquez, a senior in psychology at Portland State University, said she thinks the emergency buttons on campus are useful and “awesome” Campus Safety officer Pete Kandratieff said stu dents should still be aware of the services we already have. “We have something similar like that already,” said Kandratieff. “We have courtesy phones in each building. They aren’t as practical to just pushing a button, you still have to dial a number.” If the $90 million bond measure passed, the emer gency phones would be a new addition. “We hope to have six to 12 emergency call boxes,” said Co chran. “If you need to be escorted to your car you can dial 6650 on your phone. You can also sign up to Flash Alert, which is the best way we can com municate with you.” CCC always has an officer monitoring the Oregon City campus, as well as Harmony and Wilsonville campuses. The regular operation hours for the de partm ent of campus safety is from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.
