September 26, 2019

By Riddhi Andurkar

Campus Activities Programming Board hosted Safe Mizzou Week last week and brought many events to educate students on personal safety. Events included the Personal Safety Fair, Fire Factor, Citizens’ Response to Active Threat training and Pizza with Police.

####Personal Safety Fair####
The Personal Safety Fair, held on Tuesday, Sept. 17 at Kuhlman Court, had organizations like the RSVP Center, Columbia Police Department, MUPD, Off-Campus Student Services and FEMA teach students about how their organizations could help them.

“We have flyers here at the college to help people learn to prepare both financially and to pack kits that will allow them to be ready should disasters strike,” Linda Davis, community preparedness officer for FEMA Region VII, said.

Kristen Temple, a representative from MU’s Off-Campus Student Services, discussed safety when living off campus.

“I think it’s important that students learn about personal safety because this is one of their first opportunities to be out on their own and make decisions,” Temple said. “Making good decisions is often about understanding the rationale or the ‘why’ behind something. By coming to activities that are part of Safe Mizzou Week, they can find out why it is important to plan ahead about their living environment.”

####Fire Factor####
On Wednesday, Sept. 18, students gathered at Speakers Circle, surrounding a life-size replica of a residential dorm room. At 11:50 a.m., firefighters started the fire from the back of the room, and the audience watched as the fire spread throughout the room within three minutes.

“Many students are away from home for the first time and fires are a real danger if they’re not careful,” Assistant Fire Chief Brad Fraizer said. “This is a great visual demonstration of what can happen if a fire happens in your apartment or dorm room.”

Students felt that this demonstration made the situation seem more real than a typical fire safety lesson would have explained.

“We rarely get to see what actually happens in a fire outside of videos or if you’re unfortunately in a real life situation,” junior Brandy Williams said. “It’s nice that they lit up a whole dorm and let you see what actually happens in a fire.”

####CRAT Training####
On Wednesday, Sept. 18 in Leadership Auditorium, two MUPD officers taught students how to respond to an active shooter or violent intruder in a workplace, classroom or public setting.

Students learned how to use basic self-defense skills to face an intruder and learned how to ensure the maximum lives were saved.

####Pizza with Police####

Pizza with Police was an opportunity for students to connect with MUPD and learn about the police department’s role in their lives as students. On Thursday, Sept. 19, Police officers stood at the intersection of Hitt and Locust streets while CAPB members served pizza.

Overall, Safe Mizzou Week was meant to inform students about potential dangers they could face as college students and how to prevent these situations.

“I had been to a lot of the Safe Mizzou events in the past,” Annika Meyer, CAPB Campus-Wide/Safe Mizzou Committee chair, said. “I remember coming freshman year and coming to talk to the different booths about different safety, and I thought it was very helpful to learn different safety tips to keep myself and others safe on campus.”

_Edited by Laura Evans | levans@themaneater.com_