Dustin Sauder explains the purpose behind Campus Safety emails.

Students across campus recently received emails from Campus Safety Director Dustin Sauder regarding two events: K-9 training and active shooter information. While some students may have been alarmed about some of this, I reached out to Sauder for more information to help better inform the students on the purpose of those emails.

The K-9 training is something the Lincoln Police Department has done at Union for many years. Sauder said, “Most of the K-9s that visit our campus are trained to detect drugs. The training on campus is a great opportunity to give the K-9s and their handlers practice.” He also noted that the K-9s have always been respectful of students in classes and not disrupting them.

Sauder also sent out an email regarding general active shooter information. This email was primarily aimed at detailing the three steps of what to do if you’re in an active shooter situation: run, hide and fight. Sauder revealed that the email was in response to the abnormally high presence of these events appearing in the media recently, and it’s something that he plans on sending out consistently as a reminder to students.

“I think it’s important to remind students to report things that make them feel uncomfortable,” said Sauder. “Whether it is a person’s actions that make them uncomfortable or an event that happened, it needs to be reported for action to be taken to resolve it. The word “reported” can sound intimidating and can cause someone to decide not to mention something because they don’t think it is that big of a deal. If it makes someone uncomfortable it is worth having a conversation about with someone they trust. If anyone needs a place to go or a person to speak with about anything at all, Campus Safety is always willing to help.”

Campus Safety has a 24/7 service line available at (402) 486-2911.

By: Andrew Schwartz