To know how to apply a tourniquet, use a fire extinguisher, or recognize signs of an opioid overdose — these were the key queries posed to participants during San Francisco State University’s 2023 Campus Safety Week.

Students who answered no to any of these questions were encouraged to attend one of the numerous workshops hosted by the university.

The week-long event was co-hosted by the Office of Emergency Services; Environment, Health, & Safety; Enterprise Risk Management; and the University Police Department, according to Jeff Madigan, the university health and safety manager.

Madigan, a former combat medic for the U.S. Army, emphasized the importance of safety education for the entire campus community.

“This is just basically to raise student, staff and faculty awareness of campus safety, personal safety and even some stuff about home safety,” Madigan said.

For participants, Campus Safety Week makes potentially life-saving information free and accessible.

The importance of knowing such emergency procedures was recognized by psychology major Hosna Mohd Zaman. Zaman heard about the week-long event from an email sent to the entire student body and chose to attend a STOP THE BLEED workshop on Monday.

“I find it pretty interesting,” Zaman said. “There’s a lot of things I didn’t know.”

Similarly, freshman Anycia Sanchez attended an opioid overdose prevention workshop on Tuesday to obtain potentially life-saving information.

“I think it’s good to know about this stuff,” Sanchez said. “I guess to be more knowledgeable — you never know.”

In addition to workshops hosted across campus, various groups presented informational resources at Malcolm X Plaza on Wednesday.

Groups from Health Promotion & Wellness and representatives from the Office of Emergency Services, Federal Emergency Management Agency and other groups were present.

Sanchez heard about Campus Safety Week through posters distributed across campus. Fellow freshman Saba Wadiwala came across the event by coincidence on Wednesday. Wadiwala was drawn to the sheer volume and in-depth nature of the information offered to students.

“I’m just glad that at least our school even does something like this,” Wadiwala said. “Some schools don’t even provide any health care facilities or anything like that.”

According to Michael Beatty, executive director of the university’s Enterprise Risk Management office, SFSU’s Campus Safety Week is one of a kind.

“I don’t know of any other CSU campus that has a Campus Safety Week,” Beatty said, referring to the 23 other CSU universities.

This year’s safety week has also garnered unprecedented levels of attention, according to Beatty.

A Student approaches a fire at a safe distance, squeezes the handle and sweeps the nozzle back and forth to stop the fire as a practice, on October 17, 2023.(Feven Mamo/Golden Gate Xpress)

“I think we have a lot more foot traffic at today’s event than any year in the past,” Beatty said. “[And] I’ve been doing this since 2016.”

The high number of event-goers also benefited volunteers present and working at tabling.

Megan Acharya, a student nurse with the department of nursing, volunteered to administer free flu vaccines to the campus community. Campus Safety Week offered a valuable opportunity to hone Acharya’s skills by letting her implement her nursing classes with practical work.

“I just wanted to be part of the scene, get some practice in giving injections and it just seemed like it would be a fun thing to do,” she said.

Holding to the spirit of Campus Safety Week, Acharya said she and other student nurses volunteered to increase safety on campus.

“We volunteer just to be here,” Acharya said. “We don’t get anything out of it, we just want to do it.”

Be it student, volunteer or staff, the ultimate goal behind Campus Safety Week is to provide the SFSU community with life skills that may prove invaluable — whether they are needed on-campus or off-campus, according to Madigan.

“This [learning safety skills] is not just solely for use here,” Madigan said. “It’s just one of those things where we offer it to the campus community for the greater good at helping people as they go through life.”

Campus Safety Week will continue through Friday, Oct. 20 and SFSU will offer safety workshops and training periodically throughout the academic year. Students may view the remaining activities here.

A full list of programs offered by Environment, Health, & Safety can be accessed here.