Vice President of Student Affairs Sara Axelson said about 40 percent of her job is related to campus safety.
Emergency preparedness is one of the most important things for a university. She believes UW is as prepared for an emergency as any university can expect to be.
“In emergency situations, you prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Axelson said.
Axelson began working at UW in the fall of 2006, just prior to the Virginia Tech shooting which took place in the spring of 2007.
“After the Virginia Tech shootings, universities began looking at all aspects of campus safety,” she said.
Communication and a well-known chain of command are important when it comes to a campus-wide emergency and all the administrators know who to contact and what protocols to follow, Axelson said.
Universities across the country have learned from previous events, be it the Virginia Tech shootings or recent events such as the Aurora, Colo., theater shootings or the Pennsylvania State University sexual assault cases.
“You learn from every horrible incident. The unspeakable happened at Penn State, and you have to look at everything and fine tune it,” Axelson said.
UW has taken precautions in recent years to ensure that students are informed of emergencies almost immediately by implementing a text message alert system.
Nearly 12,000 people are currently signed up for the alert system, Axelson said.
Campus emergencies are not the only concern the Vice President of Student Affairs focuses on. Topics range anywhere from suicide prevention to sexual assaults.
“Our preparedness is tied into being tuned in and realizing if something isn’t right with someone and then following up with that person,” Axelson said.
At each orientation for new students, faculty or staff, the university holds training for sexual assault education and for the support of victims.
UW also has the AWARE program, which teaches alcohol education to help reduce alcohol-related accidents.
“Almost every major incident that occurs on campus is related to alcohol,” Axelson said.
Axelson also believes that it is everyone’s responsibility to notice if something is not right.
“It’s everybody’s responsibility to look out for one another and it’s the administration’s duty to look out for the institution’s safety,” she said.
