Columbia College boosts campus safety with additional security officer, lights and cameras
Haley Swaino
COLUMBIA, Mo, (KMIZ)
As Columbia College students head out for the first day of classes Monday, enhanced security features across campus, including new lights and cameras, are in place to keep them safe.
“We have upgraded 80 cameras around campus to provide additional views of different areas on campus just to make sure that they’re all covered,” spokesman Sam Fleury said.
In addition to upgraded ones, the university has also installed 12 new cameras. In total, there are 160 monitoring the campus this year.
Fleury said parking lots are one of the highest priority areas for surveillance and the upgraded cameras provide a 360-degree view.
Columbia College has about 8,000 students enrolled for the 2025-2026 academic year, with 900 attending Columbia’s campus, according to Fleury.
Marianna Tomz was one many students who began her senior year Monday. She said she has always felt safe on campus.
“I lived in Miller my freshman year and then I lived in Cougar Village the past two years, so I’ve been on campus always,” Tomz said.
She said some of the new features on campus will make her feel safer this year.
“Cougar Village parking lot isn’t very big so I do have to park in Miller sometimes and that walk can be a little dark because there’s a lot of trees and stuff,” Tomz said. “So I think the increased lighting is going to help a lot.”
Fluery said LED lights have replaced traditional lighting to make parking lots brighter.
The university has also hired an additional campus safety officer.
“We now have 10 officers that we have on our team,” Fluery said. “We have two on-call, patrolling 24/7 on campus at all times… working to make sure the perimeter and then the interior of campus is secure.”
This addition comes as the Columbia Police Department said it was also ramping up its enforcement efforts downtown after students’ return to campus, according to previous reporting.
Campus safety is one of many improvements Columbia College said students can expect around campus this year.
Besides enhanced safety, $2.2 million from the college’s reserved building fund and donations paid for a remodel of the Atkins-Holman Student Commons, a refresh of the Stafford Library, and the relocation of the nursing program to Federal Hall downtown, which is still in progress.
To be prepared for possible campus emergencies, Columbia College urges students to sign up for alerts through its LiveSafe App.
“Students can follow along and make sure they get alerts if there is any sort of danger on campus or weather or updates that need to be sent out,” Fleury said.
The app will recommend an action to take during an emergency and send out updates as they become available.