Officers from the Kennesaw State Police Department met with university officials, students and student-run organizations to discuss the recent public safety concerns on campus during a meeting on March 4.
Attendees of the meeting included a handful of KSU students, Chief of Police Edward Stephens, Dean of Student Success Dr. Michael Sanseviro, University Spokeswoman Tammy DeMel, Student Government Association President Carly Keller and KSU’s NAACP President Jocelyn Revell.
The meeting followed events on campus which have prompted students to fear for their safety including a student being targeted by racial discrimination and rumored threats that black students were going to be targeted on campus. KSUPD responded to these rumored threats by sending the university community an alert which stated that the department was “not aware of any credible threats to campus.”
KSU distributes timely warnings and emergency notifications in accordance with the crimes that are reportable under the Clery Act, according to KSU’s Annual Security and Fire Safety Report Publication. These notices are distributed if there are crimes that are reported to campus security authorities or local police and are determined by the institution to represent a serious or continuing threat to students and employees.
“If we have those crimes on campus, we have to evaluate if it’s a continued threat to campus,” Stephens said. “And if it’s deemed to be a continued threat to campus, we have to put out a timely warning.”
Stephens said that when there is an active threat where the perpetrator has a weapon, the department is not required to put out a timely warning or emergency notification after they have the individual in custody.
A student in attendance mentioned the incident in August 2018 where KSUPD detained a student for possession of an unlicensed firearm on campus after performing a welfare check. Stephens issued a “university safety notification” nearly a day later to make the university community aware of the events.
Stephens explained that the KSUPD utilizes this third type of emergency notification, a university safety notification, to inform the campus community of a non-active threat that has occurred following an investigation, direct request from the media or an overwhelming number of safety concerns. Stephens mentioned that the university safety notification was created following the incident in August 2018.
In reference to the emergency notification regarding the rumored targeting of black students on campus, Stephen said that the department issued the statement after receiving an overwhelming number of safety concerns from social media, even though the department found no credible or continued threat on campus.
“I felt like we had to get a statement out to let you know that there was not a threat,” Stephens said. “It went out more as an emergency notification because of what was happening right then. Even though we didn’t have a threat, the perception was there that we did have a threat, and it was growing and growing.”
Arielle Robinson contributed to this article.