This semester at Norwich University students need not worry about getting in touch with security when needed as several new call boxes were placed on campus over the summer, according to an NU security official.
“There is a total of 11 blue light type call boxes,” said Norwich University chief of security Michael Abraham. Along with the blue light boxes, there is “one push to talk rectangular box in lot A, the faculty staff lot on the east side of Route 12.”
New blue light boxes can be found by Dodge Hall, behind Jackman Hall, near the stairs to Sabine Field and “on the east side of Doyle Hall,” Abraham said. The blue light stanchion is on the corner of the fire road straight across from the front door of the newly built sports complex.
The first security boxes or stanchions were introduced in 2001, when Abraham became chief of security at the university. “Initially, we didn’t have any,” Abraham said. When the boxes were being built, “We started in places that were remote, if a student has a problem,” he said. “It’s a way to communicate with so that we could drive down there and help them out.”
Some of the first boxes were put up in the parking lots; both lots C and D and in various places around South Hall.
The boxes are there for safety, particularly for pedestrian safety, for example, if people were to trip and fall.
“A lot of accidents, traffic-type pedestrian accidents, happen by stairs,” Abraham said. “We have terrible conditions here in the winter, or can have.”
The stanchions cast an eerie light in the darkness and look much like the lights on the very top of a police cruiser, but do not function in a similar way. There is no siren that goes off when you press the button that calls security, as some students think. “What happens is that the phone rings to security and the light strobes around,” Abraham said. When someone presses the button on the stanchion, it creates a direct line between the person at the box and security office.
What if someone is not at the security office? “When a student or anybody in the community call the 485-2525 number on the phone, if it’s not picked up within the first two rings it starts an automatic process of switching to the radio,” Abraham said. When the call switches to the radio, “No matter where the duty officer is on campus he will be able to get the call.”
Along with providing safety to the public in the parking lots and high traffic areas, security also patrols the campus at night making sure all the buildings are locked and provide rides to and from the infirmary for sick students.
The university employs five security officers, one chief and one officer whose sole duty is to deal with issues of parking. There has been no increase in personnel. “Maybe we are just being more visible,” Abraham said.