Have you ever wondered about the blue poles illuminating your evening walk to your dorm? These blue posts are emergency phone stations, located across Kenyon’s campus to ensure students’ safety. Upon clicking a button, students are immediately connected to the Office of Campus Safety, and an officer is dispatched to the location. Soon, however, many of these stations will be removed.

During the April 19 Student Council meeting, representatives spoke to Interim Director of Campus Safety T. Todd Bell about the future of the emergency blue light phones. Bell cited lack of use and issues sourcing replacement parts as the main reasons for discontinuing the phone stations. 

“[The] majority of the calls that we get are through the cell phone usage and using safety apps,” Bell explained to the Council last week. Within the last three academic years, only two calls have been made using the blue light phones. The last call made via the phone stations occurred over a year ago, in March of 2025. 

Conversely, over the past two years, 17 emergency calls have been made through the RAVE Guardian app, the College’s primary communication server for both emergency and non-emergency events. In the 2026-27 academic year, Campus Safety will begin encouraging students to use RAVE for emergency purposes and communication, with the help of advertising and implementation by Student Council. 

As of now, the Office of Campus Safety is beginning to discuss plans to remove most of the phone stations in more populated areas of the Hill. Roughly 14 to 15 phones will be removed in more centralized parts of campus, as Bell and Campus Safety officers believe students in danger will be able to locate a fellow student with a phone or contact officers nearby instead. Phone stations will remain in rural areas, including the Brown Family Environmental Center and the Franklin Miller Observatory, as a continued safety precaution. 

Bell also highlighted the importance of keeping emergency phones near outdoor practice facilities, as student athletes often do not bring their phones to practice. For Henry Haile ’28, a member of Men’s Rugby, keeping phone stations near these facilities is essential for athlete safety. “As someone who has been injured on the rugby pitch during practice, I was in a pretty tight spot when I was injured,” he said in a message to the Collegian. “While the emergency telephones may not get a lot of use, that is precisely why we have them, for EMERGENCIES. I believe that athletic field emergency phones are a worthwhile investment in student safety.”

As of publication, not all details regarding the removal process have been finalized. Bell noted to the Council that discussions remain on a case-by-case basis. For example, Campus Safety is continuing discussions about removing phone stations near North Campus residences.  

Next semester, students can expect to utilize RAVE more often. It offers cross-campus communication at a clear and concise rate, and therefore uplifts students’ overall safety, according to Bell. RAVE allows students to contact Campus Safety immediately, call 911 and keep their emergency contact information readily available.