As students return to campus they are greeted by familiar and unfamiliar faces. One new addition to the Ramapo community is Jason Balson, the new director of Public Safety on campus who was hired over the summer.
Balson officially started at Ramapo on July 29th and has been met with nothing but warm welcomes.
“I’ve really quickly come to feel at home here,” he said in an interview with The Ramapo News. “It’s been warm and happy, enjoyable, and all the things you would hope for going into a new place.”
Balson has been a public safety professional for his entire career and was drawn to the position at Ramapo College because he admires Ramapo’s commitment to providing students with a solid foundation for success in their professional lives. “[I] truly value the importance of education in the development of strong communities,” said Balson in an email.
“Public Safety strives to create a peaceful and safe environment for all members of the Roadrunner community,” said Balson. “By helping to enhance the quality of life on campus, we can help to provide a place where students feel safe to grow personally and academically.”
Balson believes that the only way Ramapo can live up to its mission statement is by achieving a safe, inclusive and welcoming environment.
“Our mission statement here at the Office of Public Safety is to provide a peaceful and safe environment for everyone that comes to spend time here, students, faculty, staff or guests.” Balson added, “Anyone who is going to spend a part of their day here, should feel safe and welcome and included.”
Despite only being on campus for a short period of time, Balson has met with students, faculty and staff as the fall semester gets rolling. Balson has worked on projects such as the new guest check-in kiosks in the residence halls, as well as helped Ramapo’s facilities team work on a new traffic safety project over the summer.
The traffic safety project aims to create a safer walking and driving experience on campus. This initiative included repainting crosswalks, pavement markings and updating traffic signs around campus. The project also assigned designated parking areas for visitors, residents, commuters and staff.
This semester, Public Safety also started an on-campus internship program, giving students the opportunity to learn about public safety management. “That will give a student a really meaningful internship experience of seeing the administration of a public safety organization,” said Balson.
When not on campus, you can find Balson refereeing hockey games. “I skate games from kids all the way to NCAA, college hockey,” he said, “it’s kind of my outlet from work.”
Additionally, Balson finds the most challenging part of assimilating to campus is learning the names of the buildings and streets.
However, the semester is just getting started and Balson is excited to be on campus learning street names and meeting fellow members of the Ramapo College community.
“I am looking forward to building great relationships here at Ramapo,” said Balson.
jhammer@ramapo.edu
Featured photo submitted by Jason Balson
