Talking Stick - September/October 2018 - 25

role in the apartment complex's community development model. They are,
for example, required to facilitate various social programs (from barbecues
to karaoke), safety programs (such as
self-defense), and life skills programs
(how to change a tire or use a jumper
cable); or they collaborate in developing programs with HRL staff or attend
ones that are solely facilitated by HRL
staff. This visibility allows students to
see UCA's police officers as members
of the residential community. And,
needless to say, their presence serves
as an effective deterrent for any unwanted behaviors.
Among the annual campus-wide
programs at UCA is the GOTCHA
safety awareness program. An officer
and housing staff member are paired
up and walk through their assigned
residential facility checking for
unlocked rooms. After knocking to announce their presence, they enter the
unlocked room and affix a "GOTCHA"
post-it note on every valuable item
in plain sight. This gives residents
an impactful visual representation of
the valuables they could have lost as a
result of leaving their room unlocked
and unattended.
In the Safewalk program, residence
life partners with UCA's Student Government Association and the campus's
physical plant. Teams comprising
students, faculty, and staff are assigned
to different sections of campus where
they conduct a walkthrough in order
to develop a punch list of any safety
concerns: light bulbs not working,
bushes that need trimming, sidewalks
that need fixing, areas needing better
lighting or in need of an emergency
blue light phone, etc. At the end of the
program, a master list is compiled and
submitted to the university's physical
plant which then works on addressing
each issue.
During UCA's Welcome Week, the
police department and residence life

GIVEN THE NATURE
OF SOME OF
THEIR PRIMARY
RESPONSIBILITIES,
SUCH AS ENFORCING
UNIVERSITY POLICY
AND BEING CAMPUS
SECURITY AUTHORITIES
(CSAs) AND FIRST
RESPONDERS TO
CRISES, HOUSING AND
RESIDENCE LIFE STAFF
MUST HAVE STRONG
RELATIONSHIPS WITH
CAMPUS POLICE.

team up for Carnival Night, which
features multiple stalls hosting games
such as darts and football toss. Each
game includes an educational component that targets one of the following objectives: the components of a
positive relationship, personal identity
and the role of actions within that
identity, issues of sexual misconduct
and sexual violence, the power of
bystander intervention, and UCA's
statement prohibiting sexual assault,
domestic violence, dating violence, and
stalking. This program won a National
OTM Award for August 2017 from the
National Residence Hall Honorary.
These successful departmental partnerships require continuous upkeep
and must be established on a solid
foundation, which was developed and
solidified in the 1990s by a former director of residence life and UCA chief
of police, even before communityoriented policing on university campuses was the norm. A strategic component of this alliance was the creation
of an HRL liaison officer who attended
weekly HRL leadership meetings

Staff get a chance to apply their safety training
during active shooter drills.

PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS

SEPTEMBER + OCTOBER 2018

Talking Stick - September/October 2018

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