By KERRY WANG
In an effort to spread awareness about safety before spring break, Colorado College Campus Safety will be hosting EmpowerCon during third week in Worner Campus Center. This event, formerly known as Safety Week, is focused on educating students, faculty, and staff on personal safety, hoping to promote an inclusive and secure environment on and off campus.
According to Cathy Buckley, the assistant director for campus communications, this event is an opportunity to have some one-on-one conversations with various campus officers. “It’s more of a celebration of information, rather than a mundane safety thing,” Buckley said.
In contrast to this event in the fall semester, the spring version will focus heavily on spring break safety. Buckley said, “The impact we want is for all of our students to come back to us safely after enjoying spring break.”
By attending this event, or simply coming to Worner during this time, students will have the opportunity to speak with campus safety officers, win door prizes, and even enter a raffle for a hammock. It will be held on March 7 and 8, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day. There will also be free self-defense classes, and students will even have the option to walk through a mock sobriety test.
Marty Toland, the CSPD campus resource officer, hopes that speaking with students, will put a face to campus safety, humanize the potentially intimidating authority, and make students more comfortable presenting to them with issues. Toland’s overall wish for the event is to create an environment where “looking out for each other is second nature.” His opinion is that it’s “everyone’s responsibility” when it comes to safety.
However, even with this event, many of the effects are intangible. It’s hard to see physical effects and payoff when individuals make safer choices, in contrast to the negative consequences of poorer decisions. While much of the information will be redundant, Toland hopes that “people might learn something that they hadn’t thought of before.”
In addition to campus safety, EmpowerCon will also include the Butler Center, the Wellness Resource Center, and the Sexual Assault Resource Coordinator, among others. This is to put an emphasis on how mental, emotional, and sexual safety are just as important as physical safety.
Even if you only go for the door prizes and free t-shirts, Buckley hopes that EmpowerCon will ultimately “empower you to act as an agent for our communal safety.” The point is to not condemn students’ bad behavior, but to educate and inspire students to have a good time while keeping their safety paramount. So with that, enter the raffles, talk to some officers, and get prepared to act wisely over spring break.
