The safety of a college is one of the many deciding factors that students think about before committing to a school.
“People always ask me if I feel safe here at the University of Denver,” said second-year tour guide Gabby Harty. “I honestly do, it’s a nice area and if there is a problem, campus safety is always available.”
DU’s Campus Safety is a 24/7 unit that provides vital resources to students.
“Here at DU, we are security guards. Our jurisdiction is specifically the DU campus. Anything outside goes to Denver Police,” said Chief of Campus Safety Courtney Tassin.
While this is Tassin’s first year leading the department, this is not her first experience in the public safety realm. After receiving her master’s degree at DU in forensic psychology, she worked with the United States Secret Service where she oversaw a seven-state region and provided support to higher education institutions on their public safety plans.
At DU, the safety plans and services fall into three tiers — the DU Safe app, the ability to call Campus Safety, and Campus Safety dispatching to on-campus incidents — all of which aim to protect the community. However, these resources often go underutilized.
“My initial impression for my first four months is no, students are not using these resources,” said Tassin. “I think it’s because people don’t know about them.”
The lowest tier is the DU Campus Safe App. Using the app, students can do a virtual walk home where communication technicians in dispatch or friends and family can monitor the walk. Another feature allows users to directly text with dispatch when they are feeling unsafe.
“There are some individuals in our community who don’t feel safe with uniform authority, so this gives them agency to choose how you keep yourself safe,” said Tassin.
The app also has a mobile blue-light feature which will geolocate the user’s location and dispatch an officer to the area.
Students can also contact Campus Safety anytime without the app. The second tier of resources includes calling Campus Safety which can entail officer escorts and vehicle escorts. The third and final tier includes campus safety responses to current incidents or filing reports.
One particular student, third-year Lane Reick, has not used campus safety resources, but knows of a few services.
“I know of the blue lights on campus that you can call for an emergency from. I also know that you can call Campus Safety to come pick you up and drop you off somewhere if you feel unsafe,” said Reick.
While Reick identified important services, a key gap between most students and the department lies with a lack of awareness about the additional resources that Campus Safety provides. To address this problem, Tassin is currently working on ways to increase awareness and community engagement opportunities.
“I’m doing listening sessions across campus to talk to different groups, and I am in touch with the university cabinet, Undergraduate Student Government and students on campus so the information can flow down,” said Tassin. “You’ll probably see us tabling, advertising events and talking about ways to get involved.”
While DU is taking initiatives to facilitate student safety, research by Nanjing Audit University’s Associate Professor Li Liu, “many existing security systems are not fully effective at detecting unusual behaviors or sending fast alerts, which can delay responses to potential threats.”
These initiatives are not foolproof, and students have had unsatisfying experiences with DU Campus Safety as well.
Last quarter, several DU Safe alerts warned students to shelter in place due to an incident just off-campus. After the threat was cleared, fourth-year biology student Micah Sullivan was walking home with his friends when they encountered a campus safety officer.
Even though they had received the all-clear alert, Sullivan’s group still had safety concerns and asked the officer for a ride home.
“He said no and drove away,” Sullivan said. Though the officer had clarified the situation and that there was no active threat, Sullivan and his friends still felt unsafe and unsupported by Campus Safety. They chose not to report that incident afterwards.
“We would love to hear about students requesting resources that did not meet their expectations. They can always reach out to me and say what happened, and we can talk through it,” said Tassin.
Other students have raised concerns about security changes at the university.
“It scares me that there are no security guards at night in Towers because we are so close to the light rail and anyone could try to come in,” said second-year student Sofia Ruefli.
At the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year, DU removed the security guards who sat at the front desk in residential halls at night. This decision arose from community concerns regarding their training, attendance and third-party control. After implementing this change, many students are unaware of what Campus Safety is doing to ensure community safety.
“Campus Safety has started to do walkthroughs of resident buildings,” said Tassin. “We are looking at strengthening our relationship with Housing and Residential Education and exploring a dedicated Campus Safety officer per resident hall.”
In addition to strengthening relationships and services across campus, the department is incorporating new strategies to foster stronger community caretaking and behavioral models. The results of an experiment conducted by Mechatronic Engineer Jingjing Li show that “a sense of responsibility plays a crucial mediating role between safety education and safe behaviors, driving behavioral transformation through both cognitive and motivational pathways.”
To promote a sense of responsibility, Campus Safety is hiring people with a background in behavioral health. Similarly, they have invested in de-escalation and behavioral health awareness training to better equip officers and students with the skills they need.
These changes are part of what contributes to DU’s above average dedication in campus safety resources. According to the Princeton Review, the University of Denver ranks 16th in student services, which includes campus security.
“Across the board, DU sits higher than average on campus safety initiatives and safety on campus. There are a few things that contribute to that: we are a smaller university, so the size is not astronomical and there are more connection opportunities,” said Tassin.
However, as DU faces a $20-30 million budget deficit, Campus Safety’s resources may be allocated differently.
“DU Campus Safety has evaluated our budget carefully and identified areas where decreases in spending would not result in operational impacts. The DU Community will not see changes in Campus Safety’s presence or operations because of budget decisions,” said Tassin.
Instead, the services may be revised.
“I am not anticipating losing or reframing resources in a way that results in services going away. What I do imagine is that we continue to promote different styles and strategies of public safety,” said Tassin.
Despite uncertainty with DU’s budget, Campus Safety will maintain their relationship with the Denver Police Department (DPD). Additionally, they will continue to provide 24/7 support to students who need it.
“I want people to know that most of our officers are members of the community. They grew up at DU, they went to undergrad here, some got their master’s here. They are invested in another way which adds a level of relatability and helps students in the community feel safer contacting them,” said Tassin.
