EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) -
Students will soon be returning to the Ivy Tech Evansville Campus for the Fall semester, and when classes start, they'll see an increased level of security.
A year ago, Ivy Tech added security cameras. Now they're adding manpower, in the form of off-duty police officers joining campus security.
Melissa Byers and her son are both students at Ivy Tech, and while they're on campus at the start of the semester, there's a good chance they'll notice off-duty police officers making the rounds.
"This is going to be the first year that they're part of our normal rotation," said Executive Director of Administration at Ivy Tech Alicia Aman.
Aman says those officers started rotating in with the school's civilian security team earlier this week.
"Certainly with what's happened in the nation, it's something that we want to make sure that we're allowing that security to come in and show our students and show our employees that we are very concerned about their safety," Aman explained.
Students 14 News spoke say they generally feel safe on campus, but added security is fine with them.
"It's always a good comfort," said new student Kayla Beliles.
"Anytime you can have that extra, you know, enforcement ,that probably deters a lot of criminals or anybody that doesn't belong here," Byers said.
One thing Ivy Tech wants to be clear on, this officer presence is not in direct response to an issue on campus last week where a student made comments about the recent mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado.
"This was a new student, had not started classes yet, was just coming to enroll and will not be with us for a couple of years at least," Aman said.
"To know that they are so responsive and quick to never be over prepared or over concerned, because if they dismiss it and then something did happen then they would really regret it so to be extra prepared is always good," Byers said.
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Aman says those officers started rotating in with the school's civilian security team earlier this week.
