How many campus emergency blue light phones actually work?

FRESNO, Calif. – Fresno State has 78 emergency blue phones installed around campus. Some of the phones are completely functional, allowing a push of a button to call the Fresno State dispatch number. Others have plastic bags over the lights because they need maintenance. Students are concerned.

Sarah Hernandez, broadcast journalism major at Fresno State, said parking lot P20 might be the worst example of the problem.

“A really good majority of them have bags over them and haven’t really been fixed,” Hernandez said. “That parking lot is completely dark at night..so it’s really really dangerous for somebody and sometimes people have to park really far away.”

Hernandez wrote an article for The Collegian last semester and questioned effectiveness of the blue lights.

Marcy Gatzman, manager of police support operations, said fixing the lights can be a lengthy process.

“We send the request to tech services and they’ll evaluate the phone issue or if it’s something wrong with the phone line itself and then depending on what the problem is some things take a lot longer to fix,” Gatzman said. “If it’s infrastructure, if it’s a quick fix with the phone they can fix it, if it’s a long-term fix sometimes they have to bring us the phone and we have to ship it out for repair.”

The police department is working on securing funds from the university to help repair some of the blue lights.

Gatzman encourages all students to save the dispatch number on their cell phones which is 559-278-8400.