Ben Ruby
An Instagram account was released by the FSC Department of Campus Safety and Security earlier this month in order to improve the communication between the department and the student body.
“The goal is to share reliable, credible information to the Florida Southern student body in a timely manner.”
-Sophie Grace Posick
Sophie Grace Posick, the Executive Vice President of the Student Government Association, along with Lexi Lapore-Paternostro, the Administrative Vice President, are both student workers for the DCSS. They are extremely involved with designing the Instagram page, which students can now follow at the username fscsafety.
“We’ve been so blessed with our student workers, as they’re so good,” said Eric Rauch, the safety unit’s Director of Safety and Security.
Rauch intends the page to act less of an interactive space and more of an educational tool, much like a Youtube channel. Posick and Lapore-Paternostro have set up the page as a “one-stop shop” for students, pinning the most important information regarding contact information and shuttles.
“The pinned messages allow for students to easily access the most important content on the page,” Lapore-Paternostro said. “If students were in a rush or an emergency situation, scrolling past less urgent posts can be time-consuming, frustrating, and even dangerous.”
Although Posick and Lapore-Paternostro are credited for bringing the DCSS Instagram to the finish line, Rauch shared that it was a much longer process with several other significant contributors. He traced the origin back to former SGA Executive Vice President and Fulbright Scholar Lexi Potter who graduated in the spring of 2022.
“She set up an appointment…and she came in and sat down and she said, ‘Let me tell you why your unit sucks.’ And she unloaded on me a whole list of details,” Rauch recalled.
Potter’s efforts played a large role in developing the customer service-driven unit that constantly protects the FSC campus today. Along with the Safety Instagram, Potter suggested the implementation of a Safety Advisory Council, which is open to all students and has met a couple times each semester for several semesters now. It exists as a safe place to offer improvements and get to know the officers.
In early 2022, former Student Body President Gretchen Faraci joined forces with Potter and SGA to develop an early design for the then-hypothetical page, while the DCSS awaited official approval for the project. After Potter left, her efforts continued through Faraci and other hardworking student workers. Finally, shortly after the college received a new president, Dr. Jeremy Martin, the school administration finally permitted the project to be released to the student body.
“Dr. Martin is very tech savvy [and] understands the need,” Rauch said. “When we presented in front of him, his only question was, ‘How fast can we get it out?’”
Now that the page has been established, the DCSS hopes to get it out to as many students as possible. So far, they are off to a great start.
“We grew over 200 followers this first week alone, and that’s incredible,” said Posick.
As the page gains more following, Rauch would like to remind students that he has an “open-door policy” for his office located in the main location of the DCSS.
“Anytime you need anything, please come by and see me,” Rauch said. “We are more than willing to sit down and talk with any student.”
“Anytime you need anything, please come by and see me. We are more than willing to sit down and talk with any student.”
-Eric Rauch
As is demonstrated by Potter’s experience and the existence of the Instagram page in general, Rauch is extremely receptive to feedback and constantly wants to improve the DCSS to become more representative of student values.
“When you see something and you say something…they truly do their best to address it,” Posick said.
| Photo by Ben Ruby