Since the start of Dr. Glenn Cerny’s presidency in 2020, he and the Schoolcraft College Police Department have worked endlessly to make sure students remain safe. Chief Mark Engstrom has attended many conferences to learn more about what can be done to provide the best and safest experience for students and faculty. During the spring semester of 2024, Engstrom brought the idea of creating an app that provides several safety outlets for those on campus to Cerny, and of course Cerny was very enthusiastic.
Cerny has always wanted to make sure students feel safe while working towards their higher education goals.
“He didn’t need to spend $12,000 a year to maintain this app,” said Engstrom. Cerny was impressed that students and faculty would have access to information vital to their safety in most emergency situations.
However, this process did come with some delays. Getting approval through Apple and Google Play was lengthy. Lieutenant Matt Mayes spent most of the summer of 2024 dedicating his time and ideas to SC Safe. Though, with the help of an IT grant for $205,000 they were able to build emergency mapping to help other munipals such as Livonia Police. So in the event that campus police need assistance from off campus police, they would have access to the emergency plans.
“If Northville police show up to help, they won’t understand where LA140 is,” said Engstrom. The mapping was so large that all of it would not fit into the app to allow access for faculty.
Schoolcraft IT assisted in making a website that can be accessed only by faculty from SCSafe. This coding and programming is completely secured and cannot be accessed by a simple google search. Jeff Borton, Chief Technology Officer, and Laura Cullen, Executive Director of Enterprise Applications and her team helped with the app development. They also had help from Maria Gosur, UX Engineer, who helped with the mapping for the IT department.
Both Mayes and Engstrom were extremely grateful for all the help from both teams.
SCSafe was developed by the company Rave. All students and faculty are already enrolled in the Rave program.
SC Safe allows students to anonymously send their location to the person of their choice, allowing that person to watch them get from one location to the next. Making sure that the student makes it safely to their destination. The app is specifically designed to make sure students stay anonymous.
You can find the app on Apple or Google play. You can either scan the QR codes that are around campus or you can look up Schoolcraft Safe. The app will not ask you for any personal information. Students should click the option “Continue as Student or Guest,” this opens the main page. This gives students the option to have quick access to dial campus police or even 911 by just the click of a button as well as many other quick accesses to support resources.
Included in the app is campus safety services, such as fire emergencies or even in the event of a zombie apocalypse.
“The time to think about what to do in an emergency isn’t when the emergency is happening,” said Engstrom. With access to the app, students and faculty won’t have to think about what to do. It is all in one place, with quick access.
SC Safe also includes an “I’m okay” button in the case that we do have an on campus emergency. Students can communicate with their loved ones that they are safe.
Currently on ratemyprofessors.com, Schoolcraft has an astounding 4.6 rating out of 5 for safety. With SC Safe, Engstrom and Mayes are curious if we will reach 5.0 in safety for campus.
To download SC Safe you can scan the QR code located on SC Safe fliers or you can look up Schoolcraft Safe on your app store.
