Each of Southeast Community
College’s campuses has safety personnel to make sure students, staff and
faculty are all safe should a situation occur. Those can range from peaceful
protests getting out of hand, a student having a gun in a car, theft from a car
and more. No matter the issue, it’s a good precaution to know the safety
officers at each campus.
“There are many reasons why campus
security is important, but the main reason is to keep our students, faculty and
staff safe,” said Sam Loos, SCC Safety & Security Coordinator.
Loos has been at SCC’s
Lincoln Campus for nearly seven years. Prior to that he worked for the Nebraska
Department of Corrections and private security. Mark Meints is the Safety &
Security Coordinator at the Beatrice Campus. He’s also been at the College for
seven years. Prior to that he had an extensive career in law enforcement, fire
and emergency management. In addition to Loos and Meints, there’s five more
full-time security staff and two part-time staff.
“Our
favorite aspect of our jobs would be working with the students and partnering
with campus administration to best serve our students,” Loos said. “We take
pride in wanting to be a resource available to our students when they are in
need.”
Loos
said one of the biggest challenges the office is currently facing relates to communication.
Each Safety & Security employee has a personal cell phone, as well as
campus security phones at each campus, but sometimes people don’t know how to
contact security. In addition, the office would like to be staffed 24 hours a
day, seven days a week.
“Our
current primary goal is to build our staff to where we can provide 24/7
coverage at our three main campuses,” Loos added, “because in the near future
we will have more students living on campus.”
Loos
is referring to the 250-bed residence hall being built on the Lincoln Campus.
It’s the first-ever on-campus housing at the Lincoln Campus and is scheduled to
open in January 2024. Until then, the staff encourages everyone to know where
the Safety & Security offices are located and how to get in touch with them
in the event there is an emergency or security issue.
“We
want to partner in helping make our students successful and believe a part of
that is providing them a space and campuses that they feel safe and comfortable
on,” Meints said.
Following
is a list of the Safety & Security numbers at each campus:
* Beatrice Campus (402) 853-9365
* Lincoln Campus (402) 805-9152
* Education Square (402) 805-9129
* Jack J. Huck Continuing Education Center (402) 805-9142
* Milford Campus (402) 817-8334
For
more on SCC’s Safety & Security, click here: https://www.southeast.edu/campussafety/