Welcome Letter to Parents and Families of New Students
September 9, 2022
Dear New Student Parents and Families:
The Department of Safety and Security (DoSS) provides Dartmouth with professional safety and security services that include incident response, investigation, and follow up of all security related matters that come to our attention. We strive to engage our community via education, information sharing and training programs, as our strongest ally in deterrence and prevention.
The members of this department are committed to the Mission of the College and, as stated in our Department’s Mission Statement (link: https://www.dartmouth.edu/security/who/mission- statement.html), we are dedicated to the maintenance of a campus environment that supports academic excellence, independent thought, and cultural collaboration.
As a parent or guardian of a new student, we encourage you to have frank conversations with your student about the risks of underage alcohol consumption, sexual assault, hazing and other prohibited activities that can occur on any college campus. Dartmouth takes these issues very seriously, because they involve the safety of our students and that is our greatest concern.
New Hampshire laws pertaining to underage drinking, hazing, and sexual assault are strictly enforced by local law enforcement. Our department enforces all college policies with the safety and success of our students as our greatest priority. We are available to your student 24 hours a day; every day.
New students are often a bit overwhelmed with their first few weeks at college; encourage them to contact our department for support and services whenever they are unsure of what to do or where to get help. Our staff is very attuned to our students, and we value and foster the positive relationship we have with the entire campus community. We want students to know that we are always available to assist them!
We are accessible around the clock at 603-646-4000. We have introduced a safety app called LiveSafe, which gives access to campus resources and information; allows for easy 911 and DoSS contact in emergencies; and, if that’s preferred, it allows for anonymous reporting. I encourage you to prompt your student to download the app and make it part of their campus safety toolbox.
In the event of a catastrophic incident occurring on or near campus, we will alert the campus community via DartAlert (Dartmouth’s emergency notification system), which is a multimodal system of communications comprised of an outdoor siren and audible speakers, mass email, cellphone (voice and/or text), telephone, and desktop alerts. Please encourage your student to sign up for DartAlert, install Alertus in their desktop or laptop computer, and download and install LiveSafe in their smartphone. They can do all of this via this link: (https://www.dartmouth.edu/security/information/emergencynotifications/index.html)
You will often hear that Dartmouth is a special place, and it is! Its depth of character, traditions, diversity, commitment to academic excellence, as well as its beautiful natural surroundings contribute to making Dartmouth such an exemplary academic environment. We want your student to take full advantage of everything Dartmouth offers and, in doing so, we encourage them to take appropriate personal and collective precautions when living, learning, working, and playing at Dartmouth.
Lastly, I want to invite you to contact our office if you have any questions or concerns regarding your Dartmouth student's experience during the next four years. Please feel free to just stop by our offices to say hello when you visit campus.
We welcome you and your student to the Dartmouth community and thank you for helping us make it as safe as possible.
Keiselim Alfredo Montás
Director, Department of Safety and Security and Emergency Operations