I’ll admit that the thought of sending my daughters to college or university is a scary one. With the influx of violence and incidents on campus, how, as a parent, am I able to ensure that I’m sending my kids to a safe school? What questions should I be asking? How can I give myself, and my children piece of mind? Working in the security and incident management industry does give me some reassurance about campus safety, especially when I get to speak with a PPM client like Peter McGrath at the University of Edinburgh.
With 550+ buildings, 40,000 students, and 10,000 staff members, as a parent, I would assume that they would see their fair share of crime. In reality, these numbers are really low (less than 1% of activities a month turn into incidents). So, how does a university this size keep incidents so low? Peter says it’s because their team has core security skills. They know how to deal with incidents and with a quarter of their team having been former police officers, they have streetwise experience as well.
Like me, other parents are looking for confidence and trust in the security team at post-secondary institutions. In our talk, Peter told me about a letter that he wrote to parents and guardians that he posted on the University of Edinburgh website.
Message to Parents and Guardians
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Your student has secured a place at one of the most prestigious and expanding universities globally. The University of Edinburgh has earned its place as one top twenty academic institutions of its kind and is located in a capital city regarded as one of the most appealing and iconic in the world. The University, and the city, offer a real opportunity for its student community to thrive and to achieve all that they would hope for during their time here.As part of the University community, your student will desire and expect the best possible experience. This will come in many forms; from a positive learning environment to a busy and vibrant social scene where, in every area, they will wish to feel entirely at home. Perhaps less prominent, but of no less importance, is their safety and wellbeing throughout their time here.
The University of Edinburgh benefits from a dedicated in-house security team who are committed to providing a first-class security service that engenders confidence, safety and wellbeing to the very community of which your student is now a welcome member.
Operating across the estate, we are available to this community 24 hours a day, every day. We aim to provide support and advice around matters of personal security, property safety, crime prevention and estate integrity. Your student will find that we are pro-active in our efforts to deliver such services and that we work with our community to preserve, maintain and enhance the overall experience of living and studying here. That is our purpose.
So, as the student journey commences, I now turn to you and would ask you to contribute to our purpose by promoting to them a strong sense of self-awareness and personal responsibility whereby they may feel assured, confident and safe in their new environment. You can achieve this by ensuring that they are aware of key emergency contacts, have a base of family support, are aware of the local geography, have records of valuable property information to hand and that they know how to find us should they need us.
Should you, as parents or guardians, have any or concerns or questions where you feel that we might be of assistance then I would invite you to contact our office.
We welcome the opportunity to meet with and support your student over the coming months and years and wish them every success here at the University of Edinburgh.
Yours sincerely,
Peter McGrath, Security Operations Manager
There are so many pieces I love about this letter. I like how empowering it is to parents and students and really showcases how important safety is to everyone involved. Knowing what I can do to help and the security services offered would make me feel good about sending my child to their university. Yes, incidents happen, but if I can prepare my daughters on what to do in an emergency and feel supported, it’ll make the transition so much easier… for all of us.
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