Safety concerns arise on campus amid security threats
Transparency & communication on campus
Photo courtesy of Photo Editor Artlette Alvarez
Last week, students of SUNY Geneseo received two emails ‘addressing’ a vague situation that left many feeling uneasy. At 2:07 pm on Sept. 17 2025, a Campus Safety Update was released that said, “Earlier today, University Police, in coordination with local authorities, swiftly and appropriately responded to a report of threatening statements. The community’s continued vigilance and cooperation are essential to protecting our campus. As a reminder, if you see or hear anything concerning, contact University Police at 585-245-5222, call 911, or use the Silent Witness form.”
At 3:56 pm, another email was sent out stating, “We’re aware of law enforcement activity on and around campus. This is unrelated to our earlier campus safety message. There are no known threats to the campus. Reports are that the activity has moved away from campus.”
These emails were the only sources of information that students received until Sept. 18 at 7:43 am when another email was sent out. The email read, “We want to reassure our campus community that the safety and well-being of our students, faculty, and staff are our highest priority, and we remain committed to having a safe and secure environment. The campus continues to operate on its regular schedule. We are aware of recent social media posts that contain outdated and incorrect information regarding campus safety. Please know that these posts do not reflect the current status or conditions on campus. As soon as law enforcement became aware of the report of concerning statements, immediate action was taken to investigate and appropriately address the situation. We encourage everyone to rely on official College communications. You can also sign up for [the] NY Alert Notification System to receive important notifications. If you see or hear anything concerning, contact University Police at 585-245-5222, call 911, or use the Silent Witness form.”
The vague and delayed correspondence left many students feeling unsafe and many decided not to attend classes the next day. Due to lack of clarification, social media apps—particularly YikYak, an online, anonymous forum for college students— erupted with rumors throughout the day, intensifying fear. Oliver Rayburn, a SUNY Geneseo student, commented on the social media frenzy, saying, “Obviously, people embellish, and the reason why people embellish is because we don’t know what happened.”
Safety on campus is a very important issue that is consistently brought up. SUNY Geneseo is an open campus consisting of unlocked buildings and roads going through campus. In regards to whether or not you need an ID card to get into dining halls or academic buildings, the Geneseo website says, “Buildings are unlocked during operational hours. You need your ID for your meal plan, but dining halls are unlocked during their operational hours -- so you will be able to get in without your ID card.” This raises some concerns that there are not enough safety measures in place when it comes to building access.
Although all residence halls require ID card access, every other campus building is freely accessible during operating hours. Issac Clark, a sophomore, said, “You couldn’t lock them [doors] or there’s not like furniture you could use to barricade the doors in case of an emergency…it’s just not the most effective for ensuring student safety.” Welles arises as a specific area of concern, as the building has doors that do not lock, as well as many large glass panes, constituting what some may consider an unsafe environment in the event of an emergency.
Oliver added, “If I don’t have the details, if I don’t know what’s going on, then I don’t know how to protect myself. How am I supposed to be safe?” He and many other students share this sentiment, having been in classes where the situation had yet to be resolved; there was no communication on what to do.
Many students and faculty have brought up concerns of not knowing how to respond to emergency situations. Issac said, “...there’s definitely things in place in case something happens, we have the blue lights and UPD. But other than that, I feel like there’s no safety protocols. It’s kind of like if something happens, you’ve got to figure it out at that moment.” Students are unsure of how to handle a crisis because they are not informed of situations or have never been required to go through training. Many students responded “No” when asked if they have been required to go through gun safety training or an active shooter drill during their time at SUNY Geneseo.
However, faculty does receive information on safety drills, and this information is accessible on the official Geneseo website. Communications professor, Dr. Peter Granger, spoke about this, saying, “At the beginning of every semester, the college provides resources for active shooter drills,” which he mentions to his students every semester as part of an “introduction to the course.” Dr. Granger noted that this is information that “should be encouraged” to spread for the sake of students and faculty.
Before becoming a professor at Geneseo, Dr. Granger was the Director of the Coalition Joint Operations Center for Regional Command South in Afghanistan, as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. This meant that he was handling sensitive information “every day.” He noted that one very crucial part of communicating this kind of information is to keep “open lines of communication” and make sure that everyone actually receives the message.
As he said, the email which was sent out from Geneseo Communications and Marketing about the “threatening statements” was a very “passive form of communication.” This sentiment was echoed and confirmed by how students reacted, as many on campus felt as if they were unable to get all the information that they needed to feel safe. He noted that while serving as the Director of the Coalition Joint Unit Operations, he would have systems in place to make sure that subordinate units would be able to “confirm that they received” and understood his messages. Let alone not feeling like they had open communications with their college, a large number of students on campus were even unaware that information on safety precautions and drills was available online. Dr. Granger mentioned that he’s given that information to students in their “fourth year at Geneseo,” and that “that’s the first time they knew training existed.”
Another communication professor at SUNY Geneseo had thoughts on the situation: Dr. Lee Pierce. They took the initiative to call a phone number found on a document circulating YikYak that claimed to be a police record of a man who had made a threat against SUNY Geneseo. The phone number on the document led Dr. Pierce down a rabbit hole of talking to different law enforcement and police offices, none of whom were able to “take responsibility” for the document mentioned. Dr. Pierce ended up on the phone with the Geneseo University Police Department and was informed by an officer that the document in question was neither valid nor trustworthy.
In addition, Dr. Pierce did comment that faculty members felt the same level of confusion and frustration with the communications from Geneseo as the students did. They commented that “as communication professionals and theorists… the best practice” for Geneseo to have during a situation of such importance, and the most effective way for the college to abide by its value statement, is to have “transparency.”
The SUNY Geneseo Mission, Vision, and Values statement, as per their website, states that Geneseo strives for a campus that “respects the ideas and contributions of each individual” and which encourages “active participation” from students on issues of civic engagement and “the common good of our local and global communities.” In their own efforts to be transparent, Dr. Pierce mentioned an online Listserv, which is a form of online discussion sponsored by Geneseo, called Fact Talk. They described it as a similar, “optional” form of communication between faculty and staff members to students’ communications on YikYak. Dr. Pierce remarked that the discourse on YikYak and Fact Talk “looked almost identical.” Fact Talk has since been “temporarily suspended by the administration,” as confirmed by Dr. Pierce.
Students want more communication and transparency. Oliver was previously in a situation where violence was present in his school. He said that his school provided more clarification in the follow up email, stating, “Geneseo has a lot to work on in terms of transparency because when I was 12 when that happened, the email that was sent out was descriptive enough for those who were not involved to understand what went on.”