The past occurrences at the University of Hawaii Manoa campus in the past few weeks raised concern about the safety of campuses nearby.

The safety offices at Chaminade responded within the first seven minutes of learning about the report of a distraught male who is possibly armed with a weapon on the UH campus on Friday, April 13. During that time, the campus police at UH confirmed the information. While the situation was on going, Brother Thomas Payne, the Safety Officer at Chaminade, kept it monitored.

Chaminade University makes it a priority to ensure the safety of the individuals that frequent the campus officials said. The school is testing a new approach to connect during emergency situations according to the university.

The school’s safety team believes using school messenger can be effective in ensuring that everyone receives the message.

“Our goal is to have it up by the summer, when the new summer bridge class starts,” Payne said.

Currently, Chaminade uses the main webpage as the premiere place to update students, faculty, staff and visitors about mass notifications involving crime or emergency situations. There is also a mass email that is sent to the CUH email addresses. Even though people may not have unlimited access to their email throughout the day it is a step that is taken to get the word out to people who have access to it, in hope that people will spread the word.

Depending on the severity of the situation at hand, the loud speaker will be used to inform the entire campus at once. For individuals that are in the office and near their desk phone, a message will be prompted on the screen with the details.

Payne makes it his duty to make the campus grounds a safe place. He is in charge of overseeing that the campus meets Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. He is also in charge of reporting crimes, laboratory safety, driver certification and the mass notifications.

“Given the size of the campus the corrections list is very short,” said Timothy H. Caires, Codes Enforcement Officer of the Honolulu Fire Department. “You are doing a great job maintaining the fire safety at Chaminade University.”

When safety is mentioned, it is not always about stopping criminals from coming onto campus; there is also safety from natural disasters and activities that are not crime related. Chaminade has safety measures in place that cannot be seen, but the university said it is prepared for emergency situation.

During situations where the university has to keep the people on campus safe, there is enough food and shelter for 350 people for three to four days. The backup generator will provide light. There will also be areas to charge cellular phones and computers and access to the internet.

“The safety attitude on this campus is high,” Payne said.