REPORTING CRIMES AND OTHER EMERGENCIES

Guilford College is pleased to comply with The Jeanne Clery Act, which mandates that colleges and universities publish statistics for certain categories of substantiated crimes, to help ensure that students, faculty and staff at those institutions are aware of the facts about crime and safety on their campuses. While colleges in general are relatively safe places, national patterns clearly show that there is a need for vigilance by all campus members against crime on campus.

Timely Warnings

The general purpose of a timely warning is to aid in the prevention of similar crimes.  Timely warnings include information that promotes safety and allows individuals to protect themselves.  Timely warnings will also include the time, location and type of crime.  Exempt cases include crimes reported to pastoral or professional counselors and privileged information protected by state law (i.e. information reported to a medical doctor or attorney). 

Circumstances Triggering a Warning

Any crime that poses an eminent, serious or continuing threat to students and employees requires the Office of Public Safety to issue a timely warning.  Those crimes include all Clery Act crimes included in the annual statistics (criminal homicide, sex offenses, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson, hate crimes, and arrests or disciplinary referrals for liquor, drug, and weapon law violations), crimes reported to a campus security authority or to local law enforcement, and occurred in the specified geographic area.  The specified geographic area includes all on-campus property, non-campus property, and public property adjacent to the college. 

Manner of Dissemination

The Office of Public Safety will notify, without delay, the campus community upon the confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or staff on campus through various means such as email, posters, news releases, other methods or a combination of methods.  The method(s) used will be determined on a case by case basis that will produce the greatest chance for information to reach the entire campus community in an effective and efficient manner.

Disclosure of Crime Statistics

The Office of Public Safety maintains crime statistics in accordance with The Jeanne Clery Act and the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports definitions and publishes them annually.  In response to a crime committed on campus, the Public Safety staff investigates the incident based on their authority and training. They forward copies of all reports to the Office for Campus Life for review and action, including possible disciplinary action against students or employees. They may also notify the appropriate law enforcement agency. Guilford College lies within the jurisdiction of the Greensboro Police Department. The Public Safety staff works in conjunction with the Greensboro Police Department and other local and state agencies; joint investigative efforts are used by the department's staff and Greensboro Police Department whenever necessary. We encourage the reporting of all crimes jointly with the Office for Campus Life as well as the Greensboro Police Department.

The college compiles its annual statistics by reviewing incidents reported to the Office of Public Safety and to the Office for Campus Life. In addition, the College asks other campus security authorities to share incidents with the Office for Campus Life or the Office of Public Safety for inclusion in the annual report.

Other campus security authorities at Guilford College include the following:

• Athletic Coaches
• Faculty/Staff Advisors to clubs and organizations
• Individuals or offices with significant responsibility for student and campus activities

Daily Crime Log

The daily crime log contains all crimes reported to the Office of Public Safety and reflects the past sixty (60) days.  The log includes the nature of the crime, the date and time the crime occurred, the date and time the crime was reported, the general location, and the disposition.  The log is available for immediate review at the Office of Public Safety.

Reporting of Criminal Offenses

It is strongly encouraged that all members of the community report any criminal activity in a prompt manner to any campus security authority and/or local police. Students, faculty and staff may submit reports of any nature to the Office of Public Safety, the Office for Campus Life or any of the aforementioned campus security authorities on a voluntary basis. These reports can also be made anonymously to the above offices.  Students, faculty and staff may make anonymous reports of sexual assault by contacting the Sexual Assault Survivor Advocate hotline at 451-6525 or by completing the reporting form online at https://notesdb.guilford.edu/SARFanon.nsf.  Location and phone numbers of campus and non-campus offices in which crimes can be reported are listed on the back cover. 

Pastoral and professional mental health counselors encourage students they are counseling to report crimes on a voluntary, confidential basis for inclusion in the annual crime statistics report.  This may be in the form of providing appropriate contact information and/or accompanying the student when meeting with the appropriate contact.

For routine non-emergency information and assistance, call the Office of Public Safety at 316-2909.  For any fire, security or medical emergency on campus, dial 911 immediately. Three direct-dial "blue light" emergency phones on campus also can be activated in case of an emergency; the phones are located at the south end of the student apartment parking lot, the Milner lot, and Binford parking lot. Residence hall exterior telephones also provide access to emergency services by simply pushing the "red" emergency button.  These phones are linked directly to the Public Safety officers on duty.

Remember to:

• Give your name, location and phone number.
• Describe the nature of the emergency.
• Be prepared to respond to the officer's questions or instructions.

In response to your call, the Public Safety officers will respond and notify the appropriate local police, fire or emergency medical teams to your location immediately. The Office of Public Safety is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

To report a criminal incident occurring off campus involving a student participating in a college function, contact the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction in that location.

If the Fire Alarm Sounds

• Leave the facility. Know where the emergency exits are. Move quickly, but do not run. Do not stop to collect valuables. Use normal exits if you can, but under no circumstances use an elevator.
• Before opening a door, feel its surface near the top for heat. If it is cool, open it slowly. If smoke is present, close the door and use another route. Always close doors behind you to limit the spread of fire and smoke.
• If you must pass through heat or heavy smoke, remember that both heat and smoke rise. Crawl, keeping your face very close to the floor. This applies even when opening doors; stay low and reach up to turn the knob.
• Once you are out, move well away from the building. If a meeting place has been arranged, go there. Do not leave the scene because it may be assumed that you are trapped in the building.  
• Do not reenter the building under any circumstances until you are officially told by an appropriate college official that it is safe to do so.

If you discover fire or smoke

• Warn others and exit immediately;
• Pull the nearest fire alarm;
• Locate a telephone in a safe location as quickly as you can and dial 911. Give the building name, floor and room number of the location of the fire or smoke.