Thanks to an $80,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Fayetteville State University has enhanced its campus security, a necessary measure given that the university received bomb threats earlier this year.
“Initially, when the bomb threats took place, our stakeholders: students, staff and faculty were concerned about their safety and security,” campus Police Chief Roberto Bryan said, according to WTVD. “So, we as a department went ahead and implemented additional security measures by having officers working overtime at our guard shack, and also patrolling other communities within the university.”
That grant is part of Project School Emergency Response to Violence (Project SERVE). Bryan said the grant is important to further expand the measures they’ve already taken.
The next steps will be to use the money on things like trauma recovery for students, increase patrols, and offer more robust mental health support.
“We’re able to utilize this money to put it back in toward looking at options and layers of security for our students while they are on campus,” Bryan said in the report.
The university will continue to stand strong in the face of the threatened violence, the police chief said.
”For anyone that is considering trying to do harm, we’re going to be vigilant–not only the police, but the campus overall,” Bryan said. “We constantly have discussions with students, faculty and staff to make sure we’re all in this together. Everyone has to play a role in our security on this campus.”
Along with the on-campus safety increases, campus security officials are looking to have ongoing conversations with other universities about any potential threats to continue beefing up security.
