The panic buttons mounted on the inside of the stalls in the girl’s bathrooms of Harrelson Hall are in their last days of operation.  When Harrelson Hall was at full student capacity, the buttons served to send a silent distress signal notifying campus police to respond to an emergency.  With most of the college staff and students relocated to the SAS Building, the Department of Environmental Health and Safety,which oversees campus security systems, sees no reason to continue employing the panic system.          

Scott McInturf , director of security applications and technologies, said that the move was in line with the EHS’s goals to “reduce” on campus, referring to spending and the employment of resources.  “The panic buttons were funded by the original occupants and are being removed with that population,” McInturf said.  He said the existence of the panic buttons was largely unknown and thus their usefulness was limited.

With Harrelson Hall mostly empty following the completion of the SAS Building, it was not surprising that both students and staff were unaware of the buttons.  Sherrie Smith, a freshman in polymer and color chemistry, said she was completely oblivious to their existence. “They don’t seem all that effective, certainly not for real emergencies,” Smith said.

This sentiment was reinforced by Amber Johnson, sophomore in polymer and color chemistry. “There might not even be an answer,” Johnson said. ” It would only be helpful if you didn’t have your cell phone.”

Captain Jon Barnwell, campus police, said that that is a primary reason their removal is beneficial is in the twelve years the buttons have been employed there have been no successful uses of the systems.  “The buttons serve no purpose but to drain resources,” Barnwell said. “99 percent of the activations are false alarms — just people goofing around.  In the past year there have been over one thousand false alarms, each of which costs an officer forty-five minutes to undergo the entire response and filing process.” 

Barnwell said he, instead, advocated for the use of more modern devices like cell phones or the call boxes scattered around campus.  “Every person with a cell phone has a panic button.  It is more beneficial for the police to have voice confirmation of an emergency before responding.”

For the past five years Barnwell has made suggestions to the College of Physical and Mathematical Science — the original occupants of Harrelson Hall and those endorsing the buttons — to have them removed due to the costs to campus security. 

Chris Gould, the associate dean of the College of Physical and Mathematical Science, said that there were discussions between his college and the math department about having them relocated to more conspicuous and manageable locations. Gould said these considerations did not come to fruition because the College of Physical and Mathematical Science and the math department did not want to compromise campus security. 

Gould said more patrols were added to monitor Harrelson’s Halls to increase response and turnover rates, addressing problem with false alarms.