FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 6, 2006

MUW installs emergency phones around campus

By Jill D. O’Bryant

COLUMBUS, Miss. -- In an effort to make Mississippi University for Women campus an even safer place, the university is installing 12 emergency phones.

The phones were purchased with funds through an institutional security program grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs that totaled  $745,275. The grant also allowed the university to install additional lighting and purchase Global Electric Motorcars for the MUW Police Department.

According to the grant proposal, “the goal of the project is to enhance emergency preparedness on the MUW campus in order to ensure continued safety for the university's students, faculty, staff and guests."

Calvin Sellers, chief of the MUW Police Department, said the emergency phones will be a real plus for his department.

“Their presence alone will make the public feel safer,” Sellers said. “Also, by using them for proper emergencies, our police officers will be able to locate and assist those in need faster.

“The phones will give us a better location than maybe someone calling on a cell phone that may not really know where they are, such as visitors to our campus, new arriving freshmen students or maybe those that have been scared and may not be able to tell us their location.”

Each of the Code Blue Emergency Call Stations will have a dedicated phone line. When the call button is pushed, an alert with location information is automatically sent to the MUW Police Department who in turn can respond by voice to let the caller know their call has been received. In addition, a light will flash on top of the call station.

Jason Lea, university engineer, said he hopes the call stations will be fully operational by the end of the month.

“We have 12 new ones,” Lea said. “There is one existing behind Shattuck. We tried to locate each phone near a street light or other source.”