Our Services & Campus Safety
The Office of Public Safety team is comprised of non-sworn personnel responsible for the safety of Carthage community members and the campus in general. We are committed to providing the best customer service possible, with coverage 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Our Services
- Provide a professional and visible presence, serving as a deterrent and providing accessibility 24/7 with additional attention to campus events and activities
- Develop emergency response plans
- Maintain our Everbridge Emergency Notification System
- Monitor the fire alarm system 24/7
- Maintain camera security system
- Respond to medical emergencies and situations
- Respond to community members conflicts, concerns, and conduct violations
- Provide assistance to KPD / KFD when called upon
- Daily building and residence hall checks
- Perform daily lock/unlock schedule
- Document and report maintenance and facility needs
- Monitor vehicular and pedestrian traffic on campus and at remote lots
- Enforce parking violations in Carthage parking lots
- Coordinate traffic control, parking, and remote transportation for campus events, including student arrivals and departures, Homecoming, Commencement, Athletic, and other special events
- Maintain Lenel CCID access card system controlling student, faculty, and staff access to Carthage facilities
- Provide safety orientation training to incoming students
- Provide safety training to staff and faculty
- Provide safety awareness sessions to students
- Campus escorts
- Lockout assists
- Jump-start assists
- Parking requests
Keeping campus safe
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, 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 an ongoing and serious 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.
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.
There are 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.
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.