The Office of Student Life is helping students keep themselves and their homes safe over spring break through safety tips and education. Credit: Emma Bush | Lantern Reporter
Leaving campus for spring break? The Office of Student Life at Ohio State is offering resources to ensure students — and their homes — stay safe whether close to campus or beyond.
Student Life began providing safety tips and education regarding spring break through social media and newsletters to increase the amount of home safety and drug and alcohol education students receive before spring break begins on Monday. The Department of Public Safety also has increased efforts surrounding spring break education.
“Specifically for spring break, we’ve been focusing on promoting our partner’s content in the Student Wellness Center, making sure students have Party Smart information ahead of the break. And then we also are focusing on how to prepare your apartment or house before you leave for the week,” Rachel DeMooy, off-campus residential experience manager, said.
A partner with the Office of Student Life, the Student Wellness Center offers “Party Smart” education, which provides students with tips on how to responsibly use alcohol and drugs, like testing drugs before using, exercising caution when mixing drugs and alcohol, and keeping track of how many drinks a student has.
“Party Smart is an ongoing program that the Student Wellness Center promotes throughout the year and for spring break specifically, they want to make sure that there are reminders ahead of a week of increased activity for a majority of our students,” DeMooy said.
The Department of Public Safety published safety tips on Monday for students to ensure their belongings are protected, advising students to lock all doors and windows, leave outdoor lights on, install safety timers for indoor lights and take valuables home with them.
According to the Office of Student Life’s website, each student can receive a maximum of five window and door alarms, two smart plugs and one personal safety alarm in the Ohio Union.
The Ohio State Police Instagram account also began a spring break safety tip of the day series on Wednesday, sharing similar tips and advising students to alert the police immediately if they notice something missing from their home.
“We try to push out a lot of the same messaging on all of the platforms. We know students try to find information in different ways. So having it accessible, through email, social media, conversations with our community ambassadors, just really trying to get the same kind of content out into the community regardless of where students are going to find it,” DeMooy said.
The Office of Student Life also said they increased education initiatives before spring break by reintroducing their Buckeyes Living Off Campus, or BLOC, newsletter.
“This is an additional effort to try to get the message out. We just want students to be safe and have a good time, so hopefully that is a helpful way to receive the information,” DeMooy said.
The BLOC Newsletter was sent out to students who live in off-campus housing on Thursday with spring break reminders, advising students to be mindful about posting their locations on Instagram when on spring break, to space out their drinks and to stay with the people they traveled with.
“The newsletters are timely based on what students are experiencing, whether that [be] street sweeping reminders in the fall and spring, winter break reminders, spring break reminders and just ways to get involved in the community,” DeMooy said
“We try to push out a lot of the same messaging on all of the platforms. We know students try to find information in different ways. So having it accessible, through email, social media, conversations with our community ambassadors, just really trying to get the same kind of content out into the community regardless of where students are going to find it,” DeMooy said.
