In its new residence in the lower level at 101 Seminary St., Public Safety is just one of many offices to relocate as DePauw continues to renovate and rebuild its campus.
The campus police packed up its dwellings from its mid-campus residence in the Union Building and relocated to the outskirts of campus as it switched locations with the office of Academic Life. The offices moved on July 11 and 12 and were assisted by a third party. Since the move, Public Safety has at least doubled its square footage and Academic Life is closer to other similar departments like the Hubbard Center and Student Life.
“We have a three shift department and the extra space is a new comfort for all the people sharing the space,” said Director of Public Safety, Angela Nally. “It’s nice to have some additional space for files.”
Public Safety, which oversees 18 dispatchers, officers and workers, now has eight rooms, plus a file system room, workstation hallway and lobby. With the move, it also upgraded its phone system and fire alarm panel, which alerts them when fire alarms across campus go off. With the new phone system, the dispatchers can now better juggle the police-related and university-related phone calls that they manage.
“It seems more like an actual police department,” said Dispatcher, Kelli Stevens. “The new system is a lot quicker.”
However, as Public Safety has moved farther away from the center of campus, Nally fears it will be more difficult to have casual interactions with students.
“Now that students have to make an intentional effort to come here I’m curious to see how that will affect our relationship with them,” said Nally. “Public safety will have to work harder to create informal reactions with students.”
Overall, Nally said she and the department are very excited in their new space. The new phone number for public safety is 765-658-5555, but the old number 765-658-4261 works as well.