Michigan State University welcomes students with new safety, security improvements

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Students are going to have a few days to get settled at Michigan State University before classes begin Monday.

The campus welcomed students back Tuesday, but it’s not quite the same as how they left it. Multiple improvements have been made to improve security and safety.

“We’ve been putting in locks on many of our classrooms and some security cameras and we’ve done a full review of what we do at Michigan State,” said interim MSU President Teresa Woodruff. “That’s something we’re really committed to that should be done in the next couple of weeks.”

“We’re really looking both at the physical safety and then all the other types of safety too,” said Senior Vice President of Student Life, Vennie Gore.

On the heels of the tragic school shooting that took the lives of three and injured five others, 11,000 first-year and transfer students are officially back on campus. Training on how to respond to certain situations will be mandatory for every student on campus.

“Some of the video work that the police chief is doing to make sure that we have violence training available for every person within our environment,” Woodruff said. “Not just on campus, but within the community.”

Classrooms will also lock after certain times and will only access students and teachers with keycards. School officials said they realize students still have to heal from what happened, but they believe they can at least make students feel as comfortable as possible.

“Making this both a safe and welcoming environment is something that we both have is a real priority for our students,” Woodruff said. “And as we talk with parents and students, we’re hearing a lot of positives about the way in which they’re feeling about the entrance into this new school year.”

School officials recommend all students on or off campus download the SafeMSU, which gets crucial messages out in potential times of danger.

You can download the app from the Google Play Store or the iTunes App Store.