By Leah Beth Bolton 

The University of Memphis is improving safety by installing more Code Blue phones around campus.

Bruce Harber, director of public safety and Police Services, said that the university has continued to add phones to decrease crime on campus and to ensure that students feel safe while commuting to and from school.

“When I came here from the Memphis Police Department, I thought if we had great crime numbers that are low, everything would be great, but that’s only half the battle,” Harber said. “The other part is making sure people feel safe, so the phones help with that.”

Harber added that there are currently 42 phones spread out across campus, but the school will continue to add them each year, as long as proper funding is provided.

“They are expensive. They run around $10,000 to $15,000 a piece,” he said.

By Leah Beth Bolton 

Ask any of the students at the University of Memphis who Bruce Harber is and they’re guaranteed to answer, but many have been unable to put a face to the name.

As Director of Police Services and Public Safety at the U of M, Harber is most known for his direct electronic contact with the student body, faculty and staff, whether it be for a safety concern or weather alert.

Harber’s responsibilities vary on campus, but he is widely known for being the “man behind the Tiger Texts,” the U of M’s emergency alert text messaging system, which he helped develop for the school in 2007.

His goal is to eliminate crime on campus and keep students up to date on safety. 

“Here on campus we’re down over 10 percent. Surrounding areas are down 4.8 percent. The entire area is down 13.7 percent as a whole,” Harber said.

He added that new research has shown crime in the school’s parking lots on vehicles has gone down almost 75 percent in his 14 years on campus, which he credits to more of a police presence.

“When you consider that we have 10,000 parking spaces, which turn over a time and a half a day, our officers have done a tremendous job of keeping our students safe,” Harber said.

Harber, who moved to Memphis in the ninth grade, had an interest in public safety early on. He joined the Memphis Police Department’s cadet program right out of high school, which led him to seek a degree in the subject. He continued with the part-time program for two years while seeking his degree at the U of M.

He graduated from college in 1991 with a Bachelor of Professional Studies in police administration.

Harber worked for the Memphis Police Department for 25 years before beginning his work at the University in 2000 as the assistant director of Police Services. In January 2002, he was appointed as the new director of Police Services.

On top of his responsibilities on campus, Harber is studying for his master’s degree, which he hopes to finish by the end of the year.

By Leah Beth Bolton

If ever an inch of snow falls on the ground in Memphis, Tenn., you can guarantee the students at the University of Memphis are anxiously awaiting an alert from the school’s Director of Public Safety and Police Services Bruce Harber letting them know school is canceled for the day.

However, for Harber, that decision isn’t as easy as sending out an email.
 
Many students were disappointed Monday night following the bad weather on Sunday when Harber made the decision to open the campus late rather than canceling school all together. Twitter complaints flooded the U of M’s page with students commenting on the inconvenience of the late decision.

Senior journalism major Shelby Smith commutes from Arlington, Tenn., and said she was one of the  students disappointed in the decision.

“A 30-minute commute is no joke,” Smith said. “I think if Shelby County Schools are out; we should be out, too.”

Sara Harrison, a senior fashion merchandising, home decor and journalism major, said coming to school with ice on the ground is an inconvenience for commuters.

“I commute to school on a daily basis, so when school closes due to weather, I’m thrilled. I would rather not drive when there is ice and snow on the ground,” Harrison said.

Harber said that, contrary to popular belief, determining whether the UofM should close due to inclement weather doesn’t fall solely on him.

“I don’t make the absolute determination,” Harber said. “It’s kind of a misconception a lot of people have. I usually end up making a recommendation to the president or vice president, and then we all make the final decision together.”

Harber explained that this year brought more unexpected weather than he has seen in years past, forcing him to be abreast of the weather as far in advance as possible.

“This has been a really challenging year for us as far as weather is concerned,” he said. “Some years we’ll go a whole year without a single threat of bad weather. I tend to watch the weather, well, my deputy and I do, and like, right now, we know 10 days out what to expect.”

But for Harber, sending out a TigerText to let students know school is cancelled doesn’t mean he’ll be sleeping in.

“I’m up no later than 4:20 a.m., so I can hear what they’re saying on the weather on the morning news,” he said. “I have several layers of who to contact and what to look at before I make a decision.”

Harber said he starts by using the Weather Channel, then he moves on to Weather.com to view their map in motion. After that, he calls the Memphis Police Department’s senior dispatcher and the Shelby County Sherriff’s dispatcher to check on the roads for commuter students. Lastly, he checks in with the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

“We just gather as much information as we can from those sources, and then I call campus to see what’s going on there,” Harber said.

Harber said most importantly, students, faculty and staff must make their own decisions when it comes to safety.
  
“We always tell people they have to make their own personal decisions, too,” Harber said. “We don’t know where everyone lives. We have to go by what campus looks like, and if everything’s fine here it’s hard for us to know. We tell people to do what you think is best for your situation.”