One-Question Interview: Aaron Graves
What is Duke's policy on alerting the campus about safety concerns?
Thursday, February 21, 2008
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Durham, NC -- Q: What are Duke’s policies about alerting the campus community to crimes that pose a serious threat to safety?
Graves: Duke’s policy for notification is based on a law called the Clery Act. This is a federal regulation that requires all institutions of higher education to send timely warnings to students and employees for crimes on or immediately adjacent to campus that represent a serious or continuing threat.
Our communication approach is based on redundancy, so we send timely warnings in multiple ways: fliers, postings on the Duke News website, and a “Duke Alert” e-mail message to all students, faculty and staff at their Duke e-mail account. Depending on the situation and circumstance, we may also send out alerts for crimes or other circumstances such as severe weather that do not fall under the Clery Act.
For instance, a “Duke Alert” e-mail was sent to all students, faculty and staff in January after the murder of Abhijit Mahato, a graduate student who lived in an apartment near campus. This tragedy didn’t fall under the Clery Act notification guidelines because the crime occurred off campus. But we believed it was our responsibility to notify the community. We had lost a member of the Duke family, and the killer was still at large.
These timely warnings, whether they are e-mail, fliers or a story on Duke Today, will contain essential information that identifies what happened, where it happened and what you can do to protect yourself. Updates are issued later, as more information is available. By sending warnings quickly, we hope to help prevent similar crimes and allow faculty, staff and students to make informed decisions and take safety precautions.
It’s my responsibility as associate vice president for campus safety and security to issue timely warnings to the Duke community. The decision to do so is decided on a case-by-case basis, in light of all facts surrounding a crime, including the nature of the incident, the continuing danger to the campus community and the possible risk of compromising law enforcement efforts. I’ve asked local enforcement to keep us informed on an immediate basis of crimes that may require timely warnings, but keep in mind – there could be times when an offense is not reported to us until some time has passed, which could delay our notification to the Duke community.
Keeping the Duke community safe is a top priority. Our goal is to alert community members as quickly as possible, using an efficient process with available technology. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for updates on a new campus public address system, as well as text messaging notification options – new ways to ensure students, faculty and staff stay informed about safety.
To learn more about Clery Act, click here.
