Mission and Guiding Principles
Public Safety’s mission is to work in partnership with the Swarthmore College community to ensure a safe and secure learning, living, and working environment. The department endeavors to provide provide a prompt, professional presence while also instilling personal responsibility and accountability for the rules and regulations of the College and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
We believe safety is a responsibility shared among all students, faculty, staff, and guests to our campus. To that end, we work diligently to:
- Protect persons and property by thoughtfully preempting and proactively reducing risks on our campus.
- Preserve the peace by promptly and effectively responding to the needs of our community, fostering an atmosphere of mutual respect and consideration among all its diverse members, and instilling personal responsibility and accountability for College, local, state, and federal rules and regulations.
- Inspire confidence and trust as representatives of the College by being a prompt, professional presence in all interactions.
- Cultivate and maintain clear channels of communication within our team and with the broader College community to enhance understanding of our role on campus and create opportunities for partnership and education.
- Collaborate with our community in the spirit of Swarthmore’s Quaker values, meeting our shared goal of a safe campus by building strong and intentional ties with College departments, teams, leaders, and individuals as well as local law enforcement.
- Create and remain an accessible, caring, and engaged presence throughout your time on campus.
- Share our expertise and continually enhance our knowledge, training, and initiatives through innovative approaches to community engagement, involving all our community members in the work of keeping our campus safe.
