Carleton students were invited for a look at campus safety activities during Safety Week, which began Sept. 30 and is scheduled to Oct. 4.
CUSERT live demonstration
While some stop, drop, and roll, others just stop and drop, and when that happens, the Carleton University Student Emergency Response Team (CUSERT) is there to help.
As a part of Safety Week run by the Department of University Safety, CUSERT had a booth in the University Centre atrium informing students of what the organization does as well as running through a few live demonstrations.
“Today we ran through a couple of situations in the middle of the atrium so everyone can see what we’re doing and what happens at one of our real calls,” said Namrata Peri, a fourth-year psychology student and CUSERT member.
When rushing to the scene of an accident the student responders immediately call paramedics, then survey the scene before checking the patient for alertness and consciousness, Peri said.
Next, the responders apply things such as oxygen, bandages, and other necessary first aid items, all the while taking down information to later be given to paramedics.
“Paramedics have a really quick response to campus, but the thing is they don’t know our campus. When you have students respond to things, they can get there quickly and give them the immediate care that they need,” Peri said.
Lock It or Lose It
Stash the spare change in the glove box, roll up the windows, and lock your car doors.
Carleton’s safety officers will be checking to see which vehicles on campus are locked up as a part of the Lock It or Lose It program.
Started in 2012 as a preventative anti-theft program, Lock It or Lose It involves safety officers performing an audit on vehicles.
“The main goal is to reduce theft from vehicles,” said Special Constable Mark Hargreaves, the communications liaison for the Department of University Safety. “We don’t physically check or pull on door handles or anything . . . it’s really a visual audit of the vehicles.”
Hargreaves said they check if the vehicle is unlocked, the vehicle is unlocked with keys in view, the windows are open, and if the valuables are in plain view.
If a car passes all these criteria, it gets a “congratulations,” otherwise a flyer is left on the car with which criteria it failed checked off.
Last year, university safety performed approximately 1,500 audits. About 11 per cent of vehicles had valuables in plain sight—the most common criteria failed by vehicles.
As a part of Carleton’s ongoing safety week, the department of university safety also scheduled a Twitter Ride-Along, where Hargreaves will tweet safety incidents.
“It’s a chance for us to showcase the work we do and the incidents that occur on campus,” he said.
