Amanda Crouse
News Editor
On Thursday, Feb. 26, Interim Dean of Students Joe Kirk sent an email to the campus community announcing changes to the department of campus safety’s dispatch system. In January, campus safety began partnering with a third-party company called Campus Dispatch for fielding emergency and non-emergency calls. Kirk said that the decision to outsource services was made in the hopes of creating a more efficient dispatch system and conserving resources for “developing our campus safety officers.”
Since January, Kirk stated, members of the campus community have expressed concerns over the new system, which connects callers with AI chatbots rather than human dispatchers. Additionally, during the Spring 2026 Missions and Outcomes event, class representatives Sohail Zulfiqar ’29 and Elliott Mainwaring ’29 objected to the lack of communication from campus safety regarding its move to outsource part of its workforce. Doubts about the safety of AI call-fielding in cases of emergency led the department to reconsider its restructuring. Kirk said that campus safety has “engaged [Campus Dispatch] to provide all human dispatchers” for the rest of the Spring semester while the department works to address concerns from the College’s community.
Kirk added that private information provided during emergency and non-emergency calls is not retained by Campus Dispatch. The only information recorded is the time at which the call is made and the name of the officer/officers who receive the call information.
In closing, Kirk encouraged those with questions to reach out to himself or Campus Safety Assistant Director Kevin Cooper.
