President's Letter to Parents of Incoming Students
Dear parents,
I know this is a busy and exciting time for you and your son or daughter. It wasn't that long ago that my own children left home for college, so I believe I understand your concerns and feelings right now.
Let me take just a moment to share with you some information about campus safety and security.
The University of Florida is fortunate to have some of the very best people in the country when it comes to areas such as law enforcement, emergency management, campus housing and communication. These are professionals who have been tested by events such as the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, so they have years of real-world experience and have learned valuable lessons in the process.
One positive thing that came out of the hurricanes was how to improve our emergency communication system. What we have in place now combines mass simultaneous e-mail notification to students, faculty and staff; an automated telephone notification system; UF home page postings; text messaging via Mobile Campus; electronic signs on campus; and media alerts to get out emergency information as quickly as possible.
The university uses the Mobile Campus text messaging service to send announcements to students. You can find them at https://gators.mobilecampus.com/. I also would encourage you to remind your son or daughter to update their contact information through the Registrar's Office (ISIS) on a regular basis. This simple step could be of great help during an emergency.
If your son or daughter will be living on campus, you should know that the Department of Housing and Residence Education has made security a priority by keeping the front doors locked 24/7. The card access key opens only a student's designated facility's front door, hall and room; and a security team walks the exterior of the facilities nightly. All residence facilities have 24-hour front desk service.
Finally, the University of Florida Police Department, a nationally and state accredited organization, trains regularly for a variety of possible emergency situations. UFPD, which enjoys highly successful collaboration with law enforcement agencies throughout the state, conducts exercises in conjunction with the Gainesville Police Department and the Alachua County Sheriff's Office and has a thorough and extensive response plan. For security reasons, I cannot go into the details of that plan, but please know that our law enforcement agencies consider every contingency and work hard together to provide a safe, secure campus environment. With the lives and well-being of more than 50,000 young people at stake, we take this responsibility seriously.
Rest assured that we continually seek new ways to improve how we respond to emergencies. Your child's safety, as well as the safety of everyone else on the UF campus, is of paramount importance to us. We consider your son or daughter a part of the UF campus community. With that in mind, we urge them to help us maintain a safe environment by staying alert and following our safety guidelines on campus and in the residence halls.
Again, I welcome you to UF and I know your experience here will be a great one. Go Gators!
Sincerely,
J. Bernard Machen
President