UNI Campus Safety Awareness Month Campaign

Karli Schneider, Meg Grove, Maddi Graves, Patrice Watson

PR Cases and Studies
Jeffrey Brand
10 October, 2022

Research
Crime rates on campus are on the rise across the country and the University of Northern
Iowa is no exception. According to Bentley (2021), criminal offenses rose by 38% across
University of Cincinnati campuses from the past year. 43 percent of crimes reported in 2019
across college campuses were forcible sex offenses (“Fast Facts: College Crime, n.d.). Burglaries
at the University of Alabama were up this year, similar to UNI (Reid, 2022). Closer to home at
Iowa State University, almost all offenses were on the rise from the year before (“2021 Annual
Security and Fire Safety Report,” 2022).
Most offenses on the UNI campus have seen an increase in crime reports. The highest
increase in crime was burglary. There were eight cases in 2021 compared to one the year before.
It is most prevalent in the residence halls. Going along with burglary, another offense on the rise
in motor vehicle theft. There were zero cases of this in 2020 but five cases in 2021. Stalking and
fondling crime reports rose from the year before.
Not all offenses saw a rise in 2021. The number of rapes that were reported were down
by one. Aggravated assault reports were down by three for a total of zero on campus in 2021.
Alcohol and drug offenses were lower than the year before (“Annual Security & Fire Safety
Report 2022,” 2022).
The University of Northern Iowa Department of Public Safety has a variety of services
and resources for students wanting to equip themselves with the tools to remain safe on campus.
UNI offers SAFE and RAD trainings for personal safety, rape aggression defense, as well as
emergency preparedness resources. All of these can be found on the UNI Public Safety website.
As far as services offered, UNI offers safety escorts, automatic external defibrillators,
Silent Witness, vehicle help, loaner engraver, vehicle jump starting, and active shooter training.
All of these resources are available to students, but are not always advertised or kept up to date.
Public Safety also provides resources for drug and alcohol related incidents and addiction
services. UNI Public safety can be contacted via phone, email, and walk-ins. Their phone
number is (319) 273-2712.
With unique challenges in the campus environment and potential risks and threats coming
from many different sources the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the
Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR)Initiative (NSI) offer a cadre of awareness
videos and online training to assist campus officials in recognizing indicators of suspicious
activity and in raising public awareness of potential threats.”.This resource provides campus law
enforcement and affiliates to be equipped with knowledge to approach different situations for the
best outcome at no cost.

Objectives
1. Make UNI community aware of specific issues regarding campus safety
2. Provide tools and resources on how to better prepare themselves for their environment
3. Aid faculty and students in feeling safe and prepared on campus for many situations

Programming
Speed Dating - Campus Awareness Event

Name of Event - Speed Dating Campus Safety Awareness Event

Date of Event - September 23rd, 2023 from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Where it’s hosted - University of Northern Iowa, West Gym
Type of Event - Night event/party

The University of Northern Iowa will host a Campus Safety Day during Campus Safety Month,
on September 23rd, 2023. From 5:00 to 9:00 PM at the West Gym, the Speed Dating Campus
Safety Awareness Event will be held in order to encourage students to interact with their peers
on campus and gain knowledge about resources available that promotes safety. There will be
food and entertainment provided, alongside tables with campus safety information from
organizations and licensed professionals. Tables will provide safety information regarding:
sexual assault awareness, alcohol and drug awareness and theft/crime prevention techniques.
Informational Booths at Event
Some informational booths that will available for students to ‘speed date’ to learn more about
their resources and purpose will include: Sexual Assault Awareness, Green Dot Trainings,
Alcohol and Drug Awareness, Theft/Crime Prevention Techniques, Self Defence, ALICE
Training and Online/Internet Safety.

Vendor/Catering Services
At the Speed Dating Event, there will be food and beverages available for those who attend.
Piazza and Rialto Food Services will provide desserts and snacking items: brownies, cookies,
icecream cones, chips. They will also be grilling hotdogs and hamburgers for a meal, with veggie
burgers for those students who are vegetarian. The Other Place, located on University Avenue in
Cedar Falls, will also provide pizzas and wings.

Admissions
For students at the University of Northern Iowa, admission to attend this event is free. This is
because this event takes place on a Saturday night, and it’s an incentive for students to join and
learn about important resources on campus regarding safety awareness.

Incentives/Advertising
Students and guests who attend this event are put into a raffle where they can win gift cards to
local Cedar Falls businesses, discount coupons, or free University of Northern Iowa
merchandise. In order to advertise this event, flyers will be put around campus in dining centers,
dorms, campus facilities and buildings. There will also be social media posts and graphics posted
to gauge interest online, as well as monograms displays at Rod Library and Maucker Union.

Live Music/Entertainment
Between ‘dates’ at the event, and during the allotted time for guests to eat, there will be student
bands and live music from the UNI Choir and GLEE club performing. There will also be guest
speakers who notably will speak including the Head of the Cedar Falls Police Department,
President Mark Nook, and several other Department Heads at the University who will share
insight, importance and experiences.
At the Speed Dating event, there will be “dates” set up where students have the ability to learn
about resources and campus safety information in a timely manner. It’s called speed dating
because usually speed dating entails a formalized matchmaking process where eligible
individuals are able to meet large numbers of new potential pairs in a short period of time.
Typically each ‘date’ will last around four to five minutes of quick introductions. With this being
said, the basis of this event will allow students on campus to quickly ‘date’ through different
resources and informational sessions. At the event, which conclusviley will allow them to gain
safety awareness knowledge, their allotted time slots for each date will give them resources and
introductions to resources they will keep in mind for the future.

Supplemental Training Events Plan

As much as giving a lot of content about campus safety is critical, visual and interactive means
of sharing this information with students would be more retainable. The final day of our campus
safety awareness event would involve bringing in professional self defense instructors to
demonstrate special moves that could be life saving in a potential attack. Another interactive
activity would be having the students compete in a kahoot game where they would be tested on
the different trainings from the previous booths for campus safety speed dating, the winner/s
would receive prizes of self defense keychains.

Social Media Campaign

Twitter
Going out tonight? Stay safe by:
Being aware of your surroundings

Staying with a friend or a group

Not taking drinks from strangers

#seesomethingsaysomething
Instagram/Facebook Post

LinkedIn Post
It’s National Campus Safety Awareness month and here at UNI, we are doing our best to keep
our community safe. Join us at events throughout the month to learn more about how to keep
yourself and others safe. Stay updated on our social media pages for tips on campus safety!
*ADD FLYER WITH EVENTS*

Instagram Story:
 In order for this campaign to be successful, the events and programming have to be
advertised and promoted. We have created a media kit to be distributed across campus to inform
our stakeholders. Included in our media kit are a series of promotional social media posts, a
promotional flyer, logo, informational brochure, and monitor advertisements.
The social media posts will talk about a variety of safety topics and present UNI crime
statistics. The posts will follow UNI branding guidelines and contain prevalent information for
UNI students and faculty. The information presented in these posts will make students aware of
certain safety measures they can take to protect themselves on campus.
The promotional flyer will advertise four events. The first event is ALICE intruder
training to be held on September 7, 2023. The second event is SAFE training to be held the
following Thursday. The third event will be Green Dot Training regarding sexual assault. These
three events are smalls cale events with a more individualistic approach. They are geared toward
students wanting to equip themselves with the skills they need to foster a safe campus culture.
The fourth event the flyer will advertise is the Campus Safety Speed Dating Event. The speed
dating event is the main event our campaign focuses on. This event will take place in the
Maucker Union ballrooms A, B, and C. The three ballrooms will be collapsed into one large
room. The event will be open house style where students and faculty will rotate through different
stations learning about different safety topics.
The UNI Campus Safety logo was created to maintain a cohesive look for the campaign.
The font and colors are in accordance with UNI guidelines. The logo is minimal to focus on the
importance of the campaign.
The informational brochure will be placed around campus. They will be located in Rod
Library, the Office of Public Safety, Maucker Union, and in on campus residence halls. These
brochures will have information on campus safety topics. They are trifold brochures with
information as well as resource phone numbers for students to reach out with questions or
concerns.
The last component of the media kit will be a computer desktop wallpaper that will cycle
through on the Rod Library computer monitors. These are an excellent advertising measure that
will capture the attention of many students walking through or using Rod Library resources. The
monitor will advertise the campaign as well as the events that accompany the campaign.
Evaluation
In order to fully evaluate how the University of Northern Iowa, Campus Safety Awareness
campaign did in effect to students, there will be statistics gathering in order to prove. At the
Speed Dating event, there will be a Google Form linked with QR codes for students and guests to
share their thoughts on the event. Questions that will be presented on the form will include:
- Did you learn a lot about campus safety from going through the tables?
- Did you know what ALICE was before this event?
- How comfortable are you with self defense after the SAFE training?
- Do you feel comfortable reporting a crime, specifically sexul assault, after the
Green Dot training?
- After this month, do you feel more comfortable and confident keeping yourself
and others safe on campus?

Alongside this form, there will be before and after campaign statistics of the number of
University of Northern Iowa students and faculty who have completed the training. This will
allow us to gauge how many students, faculty and student organizations on campus attended the
training and got certified compared to the statistics before the campus awareness month
campaign. In addition, at the beginning of the campaign we will be tracking engagements and
interactions with posts and informational graphics, and during the campaign we will be sure to
note which posts and graphics got more interactions, views and engagements and which received
the fewest. This will allow us to gain better knowledge on which social media platforms and
postings received the most interaction within the community.
 Works Cited
University of Northern Iowa. (n.d.). Safety at UNI. https://safety.uni.edu/