Students sometimes resent and are ungrateful for the work of Campus Security. This is understandable if your goal is to get drunk and Security shuts down your party, or your goal is to get to class on time and they stop and question you, or your goal is to get your stolen bicycle recovered and they don't find it. It is nothing short of incredible when students offer spontaneous praise for Campus Security. In January, 2006, Dartmouth College Department of Safety and Security (DOSS) was praised by students in two separate articles in The Dartmouth Mirror. Click here to read one of them. The author of the other article put it succinctly: Don't throw beer at them, throw them at freshmen. The improved reputation of DOSS is no accident: the men and women who work Security at Dartmouth earned it.

Dartmouth College, founded in 1769, is the only Ivy League university that refuses to call itself a university. The self-reliance and independence of this unique and venerable educational institution, set in a small town in a wooded environment along the Connecticut River, is home to students and faculty from every corner of the globe. Dartmouth Safety and Security personnel are charged to promote tolerance in a spirited and diverse environment rich in educational opportunity. The sometimes intense pressure for students to be successful and the temptation of one more beer at a fraternity party provide DOSS personnel with challenges not unique to many college environments. Security also has to staff special events including the visits of world leaders and presidential candidates, patrol the river, and watch out for moose.

Evan Peterson & Rich Gavell

Under the direction of College Proctor
Harry Kinne, Dartmouth College in Hanover,
New Hampshire, began a collaborative
relationship with Evan Peterson with the
guidance of Professional Development
Coordinator Rich Gavell. Kinne and Gavell,
both former police officers, had a vision for
improving the morale and effectiveness of
the Dartmouth College Department of
Safety & Security. Their goals were an
excellent fit with Peterson's own customer
service philosophy and experience training
law enforcement personnel.

The first round of training in June, 2005, was provided to all personnel and focused on a customer service paradigm with practical ways to implement a new direction for the department. Goals included increased identification with, and pride in, the mission of the department and a focus on respectful and professional interpersonal interaction as a way to enhance the department's reputation for integrity in the campus community and as an effective strategy for increasing safety and security.

In anonymous participant surveys, 97% of Safety & Security personnel rated Peterson's presentation as good or excellent and 93% rated the job relevance of the content as good or excellent.

Kinne and Gavell reported a noticeable improvement in Safety & Security staff morale following the training. Three months later they stated that staff continue to use the customer service language and techniques taught and that personnel openly encourage peers to do likewise. They report a change in organizational culture has begun.

In September, 2005, a second workshop was provided to Department supervisors to enhance personnel management skills consistent with Director Kinne's vision. In order to further implement the Department's cultural change to a customer service model of security, supervisors were encouraged to reframe employee discipline as a balanced relationship of professional development: coaching, teaching, praising, redirecting, and correcting. Peterson provided the conceptual framework and Gavell reinforced operational expectations. In anonymous participant surveys, 100% of Safety & Security personnel rated the presentation as good or excellent and 100% rated the job relevance of the content as good or excellent.

In 2007 and again in 2011, Peterson, Kinne, and Gavell renewed their collaboration to further develop the customer service skills of Dartmouth College Safety & Security personnel. Peterson also collaborated with Dartmouth's Office of the Dean in 2011 to provide additional customized customer service workshops for their personnel.

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