With the Umpqua, Oregon shooting happening just weeks ago campus safety is in the forefront of everyones mind.

Cerritos College is one of many California community colleges hoping to avoid an emergency such as the one at Umpqua.

The Campus Safety Forum covered everything from active shooters, to emergency text alerts.

Though so much was covered during the forum, most of the information and content was geared towards faculty and staff.

The programs like CAIR which stands for Crisis Assessment, Intervention and Response.

The CAIR form provides instructors a way to make the Office of Student Conduct and Grievances aware of students that are in distress or struggling and may need help or resources.

The C.A.I.R form is simple, but Dr. Hillary Menella recommends that professors are thorough and mention any and all details when filling out the form.

Though it does take a few days for the form to be processed the Student Conduct and Grievances also recommends that a professor walk students to their offices for more immediate attention.

Also mentioned during the forum was the ways that campus police is alerted of emergencies.

One attendee asked during the Q&A session what they might do if they need to alert the police of a situation but cannot say anything out right, for risk of also alerting the dangerous person.

Police Chief, Tom Gallivan said that if the caller simply calls and leaves the line open operators may be able to hear the ongoing situation.

Another method mentioned was to talk to the operator about any random thing until they catch on that you are unable to say what the emergency is.

Gallivan later said after the forum,”I think text is absolutely the wave of the future […] it’s something we’re looking at.”

Gallivan believes that though it is out of reach now, the Campus Police are definitely looking into ways people can text emergencies in when unable to call.

Student role during emergencies and safety situations were scarcely mentioned, though Hillary Mennella, associate dean of Student Health stated that there were ways for students to be more involved in campus safety.

She said, “A lot of times students feel more comfortable coming to their peers, their good friends, if they’re going through something instead of faculty and staff so [students] may actually be one of the first ones to know that something is going on and the best thing [students] can do is not brush a person off.”

Students pay a fee of $19 that, according to Mennella, can get them access to services like the Student Health Service Department.

She said, “To see a counselor or a nurse practitioner is free.”

If a student is not willing to talk to a counselor, Mennella encourages the student’s friend to try to talk to health services.