UPIKE removes emergency boxes
0By Matthew Logan
The University of Pikeville announced on Wednesday, March 25 that the iconic emergency call boxes will be discontinued from service and removed from the campus indefinitely.
University of Pikeville’s public safety chief, Allen Abshire, sent out a mass email to the student body saying that recently the University began the change-over from the analog phone system to the network enabled system. The emergency call boxes are not compatible with the new phone system technology. As of now, there will be no replacement to the emergency call boxes, and students and faculty are urged to add the public safety office numbers to their cell phones, as this will be the primary way of communication between the students and public safety.
“The emergency call boxes were added to campus in the 1990s when nobody had cell phones,” Abshire said. “Given the call boxes do not work with the new phone network, having them around campus would be a false sense of security.”
Abshire also mentioned in the email that the public safety office also has radio communication with the Pikeville City Police in the event that the emergency merits a call to the 911 emergency number.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the removal of the emergency call boxes, contact the public safety office. The office number is 606-218-5940 and the on-call mobile number is 606-477-0262. It is advised to add these numbers to your mobile device.