Campus safety needs change during the holiday season – both when students are on or off campus.

This holiday season, why not give the gift of better campus safety to your community? Depending on your academic calendar, December can be a hectic month on college campuses. Between final exams and possibly departing campus for as long as a month of winter break, students and staff can be distracted or rushed opening up the possibility for various campus safety concerns. In addition, distractedness caused by year-end obligations can result in increased opportunities for crime.

So, what can you do? First and foremost, remind students and employees of the importance of keeping themselves safe. It sounds simple, but it’s also important and the most thoughtful gift you can give.

Provide Stress-Relief Options to Promote Campus Safety

Generally speaking, campuses can experience an uptick in drug and alcohol use during the holiday season, whether as a coping mechanism for getting through exams or as a means of celebrating the holiday season before leaving for break. Such behavior can result in possibly reckless or careless behavior as well as creating vulnerable situations for individuals to become victims of crime.

One way to help keep students safe is provide them other stress-relief options and remind them of the dangers of consuming too much alcohol or drugs. More specifically:

• Offer study groups and academic supports to decrease stress levels for students.
• Partner with student organizations or other offices to provide substance free study breaks or celebrations as a safe way to relax and enjoy the season.
• Highlight substance free events or programs taking place in the surrounding community as another way to celebrate this time of year.
• Remind students that they should never drink and drive a vehicle or even drink and ride a bicycle.
• Encourage students to stay in groups when they’ve been drinking.
• Provide students with a handy list of emergency phone numbers.
• Increase the number of campus safety officers checking in at campus parties.

Any stressed individual who’s short on time can become more vulnerable to crime. It’s important to address safety concerns for faculty and staff as well:

• Inform faculty and staff of substance free events or programs taking place in the community.
• Remind faculty and staff about the dangers of drinking and driving.
• Alert faculty and staff about the potential increase in crime during the holiday season and encourage them to be mindful and alert to potential dangers.

Then, just as you’ve managed your students and staff coping with the stress of final exams, you have to address a different yet equally pressing campus safety concern – empty dorms and academic buildings.

Develop a Campus Security Plan for Winter Break

Any vacated residence is more vulnerable to robbery. College campus buildings become easy targets during winter break. Give your students a refresher course on keeping their dorm rooms and apartments safe from theft while they’re away. Partner with the offices of Residence Life or Off Campus Student Life to provide helpful tip sheets and do walkthroughs of buildings or neighborhoods to remind folks in person of what they can do to best secure their residence before departing for a long period of time. You can display posters, distribute flyers in campus mailboxes or under dorm room doors, and create social media posts that share safety tips, which can include:

• Lock dorm rooms, apartments and office doors. This sounds basic, but students often take a lax attitude when it comes to locking their dorm rooms. They may then leave for break without thinking to turn the lock. Remind them. Ask them to lock their windows as well.
• Take valuable items with you. For example, computers and bicycles.
• Take security key cards home with you.
• Don’t prop building doors open.
• For those in apartments, ask a neighbor to collect your mail and use timed lighting if possible so your place looks lived-in.
• Don’t pack your car at night and leave the next morning. Luggage and valuables left in plain sight in your car become easy targets for thieves.

Also, remind faculty and staff who will be away during the break to:

• Shut down their computers;
• Unplug lights and space heaters;
• Lock their office doors and windows; and
• Take valuables with them.

Don’t forget that some students remain on campus during the holiday break. Remind these students of basic safety tips they should follow while many of their mates are away, such as:

• Report suspicious activity to campus safety officials and/or local police.
• Walk in well-lit areas.
• Carry a cell phone and use it if you feel uncomfortable. You could need your phone to call campus security or a friend. You might want to install a security app on your phone as well so that you can quickly dial 911 if in danger.
• Don’t carry valuables in a backpack or where visible. Hide all credit cards and cash in deep pockets – not in your wallet.
• Don’t let anyone you don’t know into your building.

Once you’ve given the campus community these safety refreshers, you can breathe a little easier during your personal winter break and look forward to coming back to the same, secure campus you left behind a few weeks earlier in the previous year.