Category: Updates

With commencement season comes the end of the first academic year of the UW’s Division of Campus Community Safety. This means it’s time to reflect on what we learned this past year and where the lessons point us for the summer and coming year.

As a reminder, the Division of Campus Community Safety was established in fall of 2022 to better address the UW’s complex safety challenges across geographies and demographics, day and night, through three key units – SafeCampus, UW Emergency Management and UW Police (Seattle campus).

We work closely with other divisions like Environmental Health & Safety, Facilities and Student Life, and allies like the U District Partnership and REACH. The work is in service of reimagining what safety can mean for all of the UW community and is guided by the goals of accountability, transparency, innovation and equity.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t lead by recalling we started this school year in a way no one envisioned – with four students being hit by gunfire near the UW Seattle campus. This tragedy focused our work immediately on communicating with students, parents and campus colleagues, and working with neighborhood and government partners to change the conditions that led to the violence. That work continues.

From October onward the year has provided opportunities for learning around every corner – identifying gaps in existing services and protocols, but, also, developing impactful collaborations and making new discoveries. Skilled and compassionate people have stepped up at every opportunity.

The dominant messages from UW students, faculty and staff this year have been threefold – that personal safety is a greater concern than it has been in the past; that mental health challenges post-COVID isolation are very present; and that training in emergency response, particularly de-escalation, is desired across all UW populations.

The current urban environment has a lot to do with the first and second messages. The UW Seattle campus and U District are experiencing issues common to most west coast cities – threats, theft, assaults and property damage are up. Gun violence, homelessness, addiction — especially to fentanyl and meth — and untreated mental illness pose ongoing challenges to individuals and families community-wide.

In Campus Community Safety, we’re working to reset and in some cases create foundational policies, information, templates and trainings, while providing day-to-day responses to behaviors of concern, threats and, unfortunately, crimes. We do that thanks to the incredible work of staff in SafeCampus, UW Emergency Management and UWPD, plus partners in safety at UW Tacoma, UW Bothell and in UW Medicine.

Here are a few learning points from the past 10 months.

Building intruders and visitors in crisis

Unfortunately, the Seattle campus has seen a sharp increase in calls regarding people smoking fentanyl in places like the Central Plaza Garage stairwells; people breaking into labs in buildings like Hitchcock and Chemistry; and actively unwell visitors entering classrooms and offices in buildings like Electrical Engineering, PACCAR, Communications and Guggenheim.

UWPD officers respond to these calls and activate responders, as available, from REACH, the group doing outreach and service engagement with homeless individuals in the U District, and from the Downtown Emergency Services mobile crisis intervention team.

The ongoing issues with people setting up overnight to smoke fentanyl and other drugs, and damage doors and elevators, prompted UW in March to establish a working group on safety issues in buildings and in April to increase the number of unarmed security guards working at night. The guards are assigned to the Central Plaza Garage (and stairways) and check other buildings as determined by calls to UWPD.

Concerns about safety also prompted UW to pay for additional unarmed security on Friday and Saturday nights October to June in the heart of The Ave’s nighttime activity.

In April, sorority and fraternity leadership conducted a North of 45th safety walk with representatives from Seattle Police, Seattle City Light, Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle Department of Transportation to highlight lighting, sidewalk and abandoned buildings challenges.

Calls for concern and safety planning rise this year

SafeCampus, UW’s hub for violence prevention, threat assessment and response, wellbeing concerns and safety planning, responded to 1,268 situations in calendar year 2022. This represents a 25% increase in calls from 2021.

Mental health concerns increase

In 2022, 25% of the situations SafeCampus engaged with related to some type of mental health concern for the caller or someone they study, work, live with or otherwise care about. An additional 7% were related to suicide concerns. And 32% of calls were related to sex- and gender-based harassment, stalking, violence and/or discrimination.

Providing training and safety planning

To help mitigate threats of violence or harm, SafeCampus leads Violence Prevention and Assessment Team Meetings with partners from around the University to think creatively about solutions, de-escalation and safety planning. In 2022, SafeCampus led 36 safety planning meetings.

SafeCampus also offered the Violence Prevention and Response training to 919 people; the Building Healthy Workplaces training to over 850 people; and tailored trainings to 21 departments in 2022.

If you are worried about someone or to request training for your area, please reach out to SafeCampus at safecampus@uw.edu.

Re-energizing emergency preparedness at UW

In November UW launched the new Preparedness Oversight Committee, a critical early step in resetting and reenergizing UW’s post-COVID approach to emergency preparedness and response.

BARC is back

This year marks the return of UW’s BARC (Business, Administration, and Research Continuity) program. BARC – planning for a breakdown or crisis that interrupts regular business operations – was active 2007 through 2018. This year, Jim Tritten was hired as the new BARC program manager for the program’s reboot. Over the next year, UW Bothell, UW Tacoma and key UW Seattle departments will be asked to participate in BARC planning as we get this critical function off the ground. If you’re interested in learning more or have BARC questions, contact Jim at jtritten@uw.edu.

UW leaders practice emergency management skills

In May UWEM hosted more than 50 leaders from the UW’s Seattle, Tacoma and Bothell campuses, and Cascadia College, to get re-grounded in the basics of emergency response and to practice working together during a simulated disaster. The training kicks off a re-commitment to regular emergency response exercises for groups all through the UW system.

Work for the summer and coming year

As we go into summer and prepare for a new school year to start in the fall, we have key priorities to work on with partners, including:

• Developing foundational emergency and security policies.
• Finalizing a contract with REACH for a homeless outreach worker assigned to the Seattle campus.
• Ramping up trainings in de-escalation and active threat response.
• Standing up an advisory committee on campus community safety.
• Developing a plan for naloxone availability on campuses.
• Converting the UW Alert to an “opt out” for text messages.

Finally, I want to say thank you to the students, faculty and staff who engaged with me and others from Campus Community Safety as we worked to solve problems together this year. Across UW you’ve been curious and thoughtful, kind and insistent when called for. Several of you have operated under very difficult circumstances amid competing demands. Thank you for your service. May you have a great summer.

Sincerely,
Sally Clark
Vice President
Division of Campus Community Safety

In the past few months, students, faculty and staff have reported concerns about personal safety on the Seattle campus at night. These issues center heavily on the Central Plaza Garage (CPG), but also include other parking areas and buildings.

Unfortunately, like in other parts of Seattle, these reports describe encountering people displaying disruptive — sometimes threatening — behavior. Students and employees report coming across drug-use paraphernalia and human waste, and report stolen property (including cars), property damage, fires and offensive graffiti.

As a result of the increase in safety issues, we have increased cleanup frequency in the Odegaard and Kane stairwells and elevators connected to the CPG so that the areas are usable for students, staff and faculty. UW Building Services, the UW Police Department, Environmental Health & Safety and Transportation Services are meeting regularly to collaborate on additional strategies to ensure safety for all in the CPG primarily, and also in other campus spaces.

In an effort to prevent these drug use, waste and damage issues from occurring in the first place, UW is immediately increasing the number of unarmed security guards working on the Seattle campus overnight. These guards will be from a private company at first while UW works to staff up internally, and they will be assigned to the CPG and check other buildings as determined by UWPD. The guards will have radios for direct communication with UWPD dispatchers and officers for situations that require a law enforcement response.

These additional security guards are necessary to meet the immediate need for assistance at night. For the CPG, additional security upgrades are slated to start later this summer, including roll-up style gates at the garage entrances, keycard access doors on the pedestrian entrances to the garage, security cameras and wifi. That work is slated to be complete in summer 2024.

It’s important to note that UW and almost every other entity with public spaces in cities across much of the United States are wrestling with how to ensure safety and address the root causes of the issues causing fear and concern – humanity-wrecking addiction; a lack of mental health supports; deep trauma; homelessness; and more.

UW continues to help fund a REACH outreach worker in the U District who builds relationships with people experiencing homelessness and connects them to the help they need – everything from food and clothing to medical care, shelter and mental health and/or substance use treatment. UWPD officers and security guards will keep sharing information about safe places to sleep for those who need support.

Through this combination of short- and long-term efforts — along with continuing work on addressing the root causes of the significant issues facing our society — we aim to provide a safer environment for our students, faculty and staff, as well as all members of our surrounding community.

Steve Charvat’s arrival at the University of Washington as Director of Emergency Management in 2003 brought with it many firsts. Coming to the UW after serving as deputy emergency director in Washington, D.C. — on the heels of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and anthrax scares — Charvat was asked to build an emergency management program at the UW and put some structure around aspects of emergency planning that hadn’t yet been tied together.

In the years leading up to Charvat’s arrival, the Nisqually Earthquake shook the region in 2001, the Center for Urban Horticulture was targeted in a firebombing attack that same year, and the Educational Outreach Building was destroyed in a 2002 fire on the site along 25^th Ave. NE that is now the Northcut Landing retail and office space. These incidents and concerns over emergency preparation and response served as the catalyst for development of a dedicated Emergency Management unit.

The UW soon became a model for emergency preparation, becoming among the first FEMA-designated “disaster-resistant universities” in 2003, and the first university in the Pac-12 and in the state of Washington to be designated “Storm Ready” by the National Weather Service. Charvat also teamed up with the City of Seattle to apply for federal grant funding to equip a state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Center, which opened in Spring 2011. The previous EOC was in a small room mostly used for yoga classes in the dilapidated Bryant Building, which has since been demolished.

After nearly two decades, Charvat is stepping down from his role as director of emergency management to pursue other opportunities.

“I feel like I’ve put my mark on the program in laying the foundational elements so that the next generation who lead the program have the tools, knowledge and information available to take it to the next level,” Charvat said. “Each drill, home football game, exercise, training, campus incident, storm response, crisis and disaster over the past 20 years tested our plans, challenged our assumptions and provided a number of lessons learned for future improvement.”

Emergency management is not easily or immediately recognizable to many and, through planning and a little luck, may be called upon in crisis infrequently — the past three years notwithstanding. But, Charvat said, people and organizations have immediate needs when a major threat or disaster happens. The UW’s Emergency Management unit was established to provide a one-stop spot for planning for disasters and coordinated damage assessment, communications, assistance and recovery. With a foundation two decades in the making, the next era of emergency management at the UW is around the corner.

“The UW is a wonderful place to work and I’ve always been very proud of the partnerships and the expertise within the University dedicated to protecting our mission of teaching, research and public service,” Charvat said. “I’ve seen the program grow, and I am confident that the program will continue to meet the challenges of tomorrow by building on the successes of the past.”

A search for Charvat’s successor will get underway in winter quarter.

Welcome back to winter quarter, Huskies.

Welcome back to classrooms and labs, lectures, bus and train commutes, locking up your bike, walking across campuses in the dark, watching for snow and ice, and thinking about spring.

We have a few Top of the Quarter Tips for you. Some of these may seem basic, but sometimes it’s the simple things that keep you, our community and your gear safe.

Think ahead. If you’re working in an open area, a café, a library or wherever, don’t leave your things behind and out of your sight in order to get another coffee or use the restroom. It’s a pain to pack up, but it’s a bigger pain to lose all your work when your laptop (or phone) walks away with someone else.

Bike theft remains unfortunately too common on all UW campuses. Use a U-lock instead of a cable. We’ve had cases of thieves using power saws on U-locks, but it takes more time and attracts more attention. On the Seattle campus you can register your bike’s make and serial number with UWPD, which gives a chance of the bike turning up when second-hand shops check the database.

More basics:

• Register your cellphone number with UW Alert so you get text advisories and alerts (in addition to emails).
• Download the SafeZone app so you have another option for quickly reaching 911. SafeZone, also, has a non-emergency “safety timer” function for people who walk to and from the Seattle campus. For instance, if you walk regularly at night from Suzzallo Library to your apartment at NE 47^th and Brooklyn NE, activate the app when you leave Suzzallo and it connects with 911 dispatch as a “virtual guardian.” If you don’t arrive at your destination in a certain period of time, 911 will check on you.
• Interest in NightWalk (206-685-9255) service for the Seattle campus surged last quarter and additional capacity has been added. It’s not a walk anymore, by the way. This is a ride with a UWPD Security Officer or a Lyft driver if demand means the wait for an officer would be too long. Also, you can hop the night-time circulator bus, Husky NightRide, to move around the Seattle campus.

Be aware. Keep connected with your surroundings when moving around campus and around town. The Puget Sound region is experiencing all the challenges of the post-COVID economy and the human crises of unsheltered homelessness and untreated mental illness. Seattle’s U District is a great neighborhood teeming with excellent food, small shops and entertainment. Capitol Hill, Downtown, SODO, Columbia City and other neighborhoods also have fantastic music venues reachable through the magic of light rail. Be adventurous, but be smart.

UW campuses are public spaces where everyone is welcome. However, not every interior space is open to the public. Locked spaces are for the security of students in residence halls and for students, staff and faculty who work with expensive equipment, privileged data or during hours when not many people are around. Tailgating, allowing someone you don’t know to enter a secure space behind you, compromises safety for others. This can be complicated at crowded passing times, but it’s OK to say something to someone trying to trail in behind you, like: “Hi, I’m Jane. What’s your name? Do you have your Husky card? We’ve had some weird stuff in the past quarter and I’m practicing my no-tailgating skills. How am I doing?”

Be kind. That means to yourself and others. It may sound trite, but it’s true – everyone is carrying something the rest of us don’t easily see.

For most of us, being a good friend, ally and bystander takes thought and practice. Sometimes it’s just going for a walk or coffee, but sometimes it’s more. For students, each campus has a counseling center ready to help with stress and mental health concerns. For faculty and staff, that help comes via CareLink. Maybe your concern about your own well-being or someone else’s behavior is rising, though. Don’t hesitate to reach out to SafeCampus, the University’s violence prevention and response unit.

Feeling safe and being safe in our campus communities depends on all of us. Thanks for doing your part.

On Nov. 1, University of Washington Parent & Family Programs hosted a virtual discussion for UW families on campus and community safety, and you can view a recording of that conversation in this post.

It’s wet and gray the way later October is supposed to be, but just a few days ago most of Western Washington was struggling with what at certain moments topped the “World’s Worst Air Quality” lists. Unfortunately, wildfire smoke has become a standard late summer, early fall phenomenon for all three campuses. In addition, we’ve seen higher summer peak temperatures. It’s time to treat inclement summer weather as an ongoing challenge requiring standards connected to guidance and, when necessary, requirements for UW communities.

Currently, UW Emergency Management and UW Environmental Health & Safety communicate when the air quality index (AQI) levels rise and EH&S posts an alert detailing the steps units should take to protect student, staff and faculty health. However, with the frequency of air quality issues over the past several summers and the breadth of UW’s reach around Puget Sound and Western Washington, refinement and amplification of this approach is needed for the future.

Previously, the UW Weather Status Assessment Group convened only for winter weather challenges like snow and ice. It’s made up of operations-focused groups like Facilities, Human Resources, Student Life, Academic Affairs, UW Medicine and News & Information. It makes recommendations specifically about operations on the Seattle campus and supports operational decisions at UW-Bothell and UW-Tacoma.

A sub-group of this team is now meeting to focus on adapting the WSAG to advise on inclement summer weather. The goal is to review the work on AQI standards and requirements under way at the state level in Washington and connect it to the needs of UW campuses and facilities. In the end, the idea is to come up with a relatively easy to understand chart of AQI levels with corresponding University guidance or requirements. The guidance and requirements will likely mean more preparation for summer weather; a greater understanding of specific building systems that protect occupants from smoke, particulates and extreme heat; and potential operational changes in high AQI or heat circumstances.

With this review work underway now, the hope is to have draft standards and guidance in winter quarter, followed by refinement for application next summer. If you would like to learn more, please contact Barry Morgan, UWEM Plans, Training & Exercise Manager at bm1933@uw.edu.

As we close out the first full week of the quarter and mark just less than a week since the shootings in the University District, I want to provide a brief update on actions since last Sunday morning.

Last weekend’s violence in the University District has raised important and urgent questions from students, their parents, faculty and staff about safety in the neighborhood. While we have been focused on providing support to the students who were directly involved in last weekend’s incidents, we have also been in frequent communication with City Hall, Seattle police and the U District Partnership to ensure safety in the neighborhood now and continue our long-term work to prevent violence. Though the urgency has increased in the past few days, we have long worked productively with these partners.