UTAH TECH UNIVERSITY'S STUDENT NEWS SOURCE | March 28, 2024

Here’s how you can stay safe in student housing

Utah Tech University puts effort into implementing safety procedures and making campus and its housing as safe as possible for any student. Misha Mosiichuk | Sun News Daily

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Despite being in the top three safest universities in the country, safety is still a concern around the Utah Tech University campus.

University police patrol the university and surrounding student housing apartments regularly to ensure safety throughout the day and night. They provide their services 24/7, and student housing is a high priority. 

Students have three methods to call the police if they require help:

  1. They can dial 911 and speak to the dispatch center for officers to be sent to the location. These calls are top priority for police and are handled immediately.
  2. They also offer a non-emergency line at 435-627-4300 for situations such as lock-outs, non-injury traffic accidents, police escorts, lost property, etc.
  3. The last option for students is a second non-emergency number, 435-652-7515, which is used for fingerprint services, notary services, police records and more. 

On-campus student housing apartments offer multiple services to students to ensure their safety. Residential managers and resident assistants patrol the building and report any suspicious activity to the police. They also ensure students a secure environment with doors that are locked on schedule and require a specific key to enter the building and fire suppression systems. 

“The Resident Life staff and University Police work closely to continually improve safety processes in all on-campus student housing,” said Ron Bridge, interim chief of police and director of public safety. 

For students living off-campus, there are still procedures in place to ensure a safe environment. Vintage at Tabernacle student housing has been commended multiple times by the St. George Police Department for keeping the building safe and quiet. 

“We take the safety of our residents very seriously, as most of our tenants have recently left home for the first time and that can be overwhelming for some,” said Carter Evans, general manager of Vintage at Tabernacle. “While it is impossible to guarantee any complex will be 100% safe all of the time, I am extremely confident a safer property cannot be found in St. George.”

Vintage at Tabernacle offers students safety from the time they enter the premises, and the journey to their apartment. With a two-story parking garage, students are able to have brightly lit and camera-monitored parking spot as they enter the building. Cameras are stationed at every entrance that are recording 24/7, and all doors require a key fob to enter outside of office hours. 

“We were the first off-campus housing in St. George to hire a private security team that patrols nightly 365 days a year,” Evans said.

To ensure safety within the apartments, all doors are individually keyed and replaced if the key had not been returned by a previous tenant. Each key is also uniquely coded, so if it is lost, no one will know which apartment or bedroom it goes to. 

Vintage at Tabernacle installed a state-of-the-art fire alarm system that will go off if smoke is detected in any of the hallways or common areas around the building. It is also a member of the St. George Crime Free Housing program, which gives police officers the right to commonly patrol the property and update management on any activity on the premises. 

While crime is impossible to completely get rid of, both on-campus and off-campus housing ensure students’ safety in and out of the apartments.