[Amanda Guthorn]

Great question and one that I know has been posed previously.

The short answer is that there is no legislative requirement for the phones. However, the presence of the phones is still one of the most frequently asked questions by families when visiting campus. Many advocacy and watchdog groups list them on their questions to ask about safety lists.

At La Salle, we also have aging phones in various states of operation. We also have Rave Guardian, a 2-way texting system, essentially a portable emergency blue light phone, for students to contact dispatch. It requires students to download the app and while we have seen an increase in the downloads (we do a lot of advocacy on this), it is not everyone. And people still ask about the blue light phones.

When La Salle moved away from an analog phone system a few years ago, it was a challenge to retrofit the first gen dial-up phones to maintain operation. Because of our location, we determined that replacing the phones would be the best solution for us. The cameras will show up on our system in dispatch. We are in the midst of the project opting for intercom camera phones, some to be hardwired and others to use wireless. We also found a local company to powder coat and logo our old stanchions to reduce the cost of purchasing new ones.

Before we started the project, I reached out to our Philadelphia area colleague institutions to get a sense of their plans and their reasoning. Those institutions that have emergency phones indicated they were planning to maintain the current inventory and/or were reviewing to determine what to do moving forward. The reasons included: students’ perceptions of safety are greater with the phones; concerns about criminal incidents in the area, and; the phones can be multifunctional.

For those phones that are out of service, I contacted a company called DuctSox to fashion stanchion covers with “Out of Service” on them to put over the phones while we are working on the replacement project and if a phone goes down in the future.

I would suggest you contact your Admissions staff to find out if the phones come up as a topic of discussion, and ask your student government how they feel about them. While I have a lot of experience and opinions, at the end of the day it is about the students and their families.

Best of luck with the project. Please feel free to contact me if you want more information.

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Amanda Guthorn
AVP for Public Safety
LaSalle University
Philadelphia MD
United States
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-11-2022 09:39
From: Bill LaTour
Subject: blue light phones

Our campus was built over 20 years ago and included several blue light phones in the parking lots.? Several of those phones have failed or are failing.? Is there a requirement to have blue light phones – none that I’m aware of?? 20 years ago cell phones were not as common and today everyone has one.? We have emergency phone numbers posted and campus community can reach police on campus in this manner.? Other than the perception of additional safety, is there any reason to invest in blue light phones that don’t get used?

Especially would like to hear from any of my Illinois colleagues and 2-year institutions.

Thanks!

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Bill LaTour
Dean of Operations/Chief of Police
John Wood Community College
Quincy IL
blatour@jwcc.edu
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