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Each of Southeast Community College’s campuses has safety personnel to make sure students, staff and faculty are all safe should a situation occur. Those can range from peaceful protests getting out of hand, a student having a gun in a car, theft from a car and more. No matter the issue, it’s a good precaution to know the safety officers at each campus.

“There are many reasons why campus security is important, but the main reason is to keep our students, faculty and staff safe,” said Sam Loos, SCC Safety & Security Coordinator.

Loos has been at SCC’s Lincoln Campus for nearly seven years. Prior to that he worked for the Nebraska Department of Corrections and private security. Mark Meints is the Safety & Security Coordinator at the Beatrice Campus. He’s also been at the College for seven years. Prior to that he had an extensive career in law enforcement, fire and emergency management. In addition to Loos and Meints, there’s five more full-time security staff and two part-time staff.

“Our favorite aspect of our jobs would be working with the students and partnering with campus administration to best serve our students,” Loos said. “We take pride in wanting to be a resource available to our students when they are in need.”

Loos said one of the biggest challenges the office is currently facing relates to communication. Each Safety & Security employee has a personal cell phone, as well as campus security phones at each campus, but sometimes people don’t know how to contact security. In addition, the office would like to be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“Our current primary goal is to build our staff to where we can provide 24/7 coverage at our three main campuses,” Loos added, “because in the near future we will have more students living on campus.”

Loos is referring to the 250-bed residence hall being built on the Lincoln Campus. It’s the first-ever on-campus housing at the Lincoln Campus and is scheduled to open in January 2024. Until then, the staff encourages everyone to know where the Safety & Security offices are located and how to get in touch with them in the event there is an emergency or security issue.

“We want to partner in helping make our students successful and believe a part of that is providing them a space and campuses that they feel safe and comfortable on,” Meints said.

Following is a list of the Safety & Security numbers at each campus:

* Beatrice Campus (402) 853-9365

* Lincoln Campus (402) 805-9152

* Education Square (402) 805-9129

* Jack J. Huck Continuing Education Center (402) 805-9142

* Milford Campus (402) 817-8334

For more on SCC’s Safety & Security, click here: Safe Campuses