Campus Safety
The Office of Public Safety operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Officers provide parking lot shuttle service, event management support, event security, parking and traffic control, and building security. In addition, officers are trained in first aid, CPR, and the use of Automatic External Defibrillators.
The Office of Public Safety responds to:
- Medical emergencies
- Vehicle accidents
- Reports of theft
- Lost and found property
- All other service requests concerning the safety and security of our campus community
HOw the Office of Public Safety keeps campus safe:
There are 34 emergency contact phones located on campus. Look for the blue light on top of the phones. Merely touching the large circle on the face of the phone will connect you to the Office of Public Safety dispatcher.
Blue Light Telephone Locations
Exterior Locations
- At the entrance of each residence hall
- Outside the Tarble Athletic and Recreational Center
- Outside the Campbell Student Union
- Outside the Tarble Arena complex
- Hedberg Library dock at the H. F. Johnson Center for the Fine Arts
Interior Locations
- Inside the southeast lower entryway of Tarble Arena
- In the north stairwell of the A. W. Clausen Center for World Business
- In the terrace-level laundry rooms of Madrigrano, Johnson, Denhart and Tarble residence halls
- In the terrace-level laundry rooms of all Oaks buildings
Parking Lot Locations
- The North Parking Lots (formerly Lots C, H, and N)
- The South Upper Parking Lot (formerly Lot I)
- The South Lower Parking Lot (formerly Lot A; there are two blue light telephones in this lot)
- The Pike River Lot (former Lot D)
- Along the circle drive of the Oaks Residential Village
When to use a Blue Light Telephone
Carthage community members are encouraged to use these phones when they:
- Are lost and need directions or information on campus.
- Require assistance to be called for their vehicle.
- Have a medical emergency.
- Desire a ride on the parking lot shuttle during the campus shuttle hours.
- Feel threatened.
- Become a victim of or witness to a crime.
- Wish to report a suspicious activity.
About our ENS
Carthage partners with the nationwide ENS software company Everbridge Inc. for our emergency notification services. Everbridge is used by the 25 busiest North American airports, eight of the 10 most populated U.S. cities, and more than 1,000 hospitals.
In situations where there is a threat to the campus community, the ENS would send campus alerts in the following ways:
- Text message
- Email message
- Secondary email message
- Cell phone call
- Secondary/home phone call
You may receive repeat messages across a variety of platforms until you confirm receipt; we do this to ensure the message was delivered.
Receiving Alerts
Carthage students must update their emergency contact information and preferred method of communication through My.Carthage.edu. Log in to My.Carthage.edu and click “Edit Emergency Contacts” at the bottom of the main landing page.
Carthage faculty and staff must update their emergency contact information in Workday. Log in to Workday, select “Personal Information,” and then “Emergency Contacts” to update your emergency contacts.
When We Use Alerts
Campus alerts are sent when there is a threat to the campus community, or when a message needs to be communicated to the entire community quickly. An ENS alert will be sent if:
- There is a safety concern.
- In cases of severe weather, such as a tornado warning or winter storm.
- When there is a campus emergency that requires people to take action. Advised actions may include sheltering in place, staying indoors, avoiding a certain area of campus, or some other action specific to the emergency at hand.
Any time an ENS alert is sent, analytics are carefully reviewed to ensure the system worked properly. Any message that was not successfully delivered is researched, and the issue that prevented delivery is resolved. The ENS system is tested multiple times during the academic year.
Other Tools We Use
The ENS is one of a number of communication tools available to us. In addition, we post campus alerts on the www.carthage.edu website. A banner announcement will appear on the top of all www.carthage.edu webpages in the case of a weather-related closing or another campus emergency. Carthage can also utilize all campus phones to send an audible public safety announcement, mirror an emergency message on campus digital bulletin boards, and employ the stadium broadcast system.
Carthage is committed to providing a safe, healthy, and welcoming environment for all of our students and the entire Carthage community. A robust emergency notification system is a critical part of that.
Carthage College is required by federal law to publish an Annual Security Report by Oct. 1 of each year, prepared and distributed in compliance with The Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990.
Carthage College has a Facebook group for parents of current students. If a campus safety concern arises, the Office of Communications will utilize this group to share updates with parents. Go to www.carthage.edu/parent-facebook to join. In the event of a campus emergency, our first priority will be keeping our students, staff, and faculty safe. Parents will be able to find information on our website and alerts will be posted to our Campus Alert webpage, www.carthage.edu/alert.
Carthage College has an Emergency Operations Plan that includes guidelines to deal with an active threat/active shooter situation. An Employee Emergency Procedures Guide is located in every classroom on campus. This guide includes an easy-to-find and easy-to-follow Active Threat/Active Shooter response. In addition, Carthage holds active shooter training events on campus every year. These sessions are open to students, faculty, and staff. An active shooter training video is available for viewing by all Carthage College employees within the My.Carthage.edu campus portal.
The Office of Public Safety conducts its own extensive training for active threat/active shooter situations. That training includes joint training sessions on campus with Kenosha law enforcement agencies. Carthage has held on-campus training sessions with local law enforcement six times in the last five years.
In a campus crisis response situation, our counseling services and campus pastor would serve students as determined by the circumstances of the situation. This may include walk-in or scheduled appointments, engaging spaces for support in a group setting, immediate crisis response, and referral to long-term care providers.
In the case of a tornado or weather emergency, the College has designated shelters that community members should go to for safety.