On Wednesday, September 7, the Student Government Association (SGA) sponsored an event called “Colgate Hello with Campus Safety” on the Academic Quad in an effort to improve relations between members of the student body and Campus Safety staff. Sophomore SGA senator Jenny Lundt explained the event’s main goal.

“We decided that the ‘Colgate Hello with Campus Safety’ would be a great way to make [Campus Safety] more accessible to students,” Lundt said.

Lundt worked with Student Body President senior Matthew Swain to organize the event to increase dialogue between Campus Safety officers and students. As Campus Safety staff handed out donuts and coffee while promoting the “Colgate Hello,” students had the opportunity to meet Campus Safety officers and elected class representatives. The event aimed to teach students about the variety of services offered by Campus Safety, which include jump-starting student vehicles and providing medical transports.

Swain shared his outlook on the event and the SGA’s collaborative

efforts with Campus Safety.

 “I am excited to have worked with Campus Safety since last spring semester in efforts to improve student-officer relations,” Swain said. “Overall, my hope is that events of this nature will encourage much needed dialogue between students and officers in order to move away from misconceptions regarding the role of a campus safety officer and to ultimately foster a more intertwined community here at Colgate. By the end of this academic school year, I hope that the phrase ‘Campo’ will be eliminated entirely.”

Campus Safety hopes to move away from the notion of being recognized as “Campus Police,” as policing students is not the office’s main function.

Lundt elaborated on Swain’s comment regarding the common campus slang “Campo,” focusing on the other roles of Campus Safety in ensuring a safe and secure campus environment for Colgate students.

“The biggest problem we found is that everyone calls them ‘Campo.’ The ‘po’ refers to police – they are not an enforcement organization but rather here for safety purposes,” Lundt said. “Campus Safety does transports and unlocks and jump starts cars, yet everyone assumes they’re only here to steal alcohol from students. This is not to say that problems don’t happen…but if they do, the leaders of Campus Safety want to hear about it – call in or leave an anonymous tip online.”