Safety

Meet the Mason Nation: Officer Ashanti Mumin

Shayla Brown — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 17:51:39 +0000

Meet the Mason Nation: Officer Ashanti Mumin Shayla Brown Thu, 06/08/2023 - 13:51

Officer Ashanti Mumin with his K9 partner, Bunji. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Job: Police Corporal and K9 Officer, Department of Police and Public Safety

Members of Mason’s Police and Public Safety Department maintain a presence on the university’s campuses and are a visible part of Mason Nation. One of the “officers” students are always happy to see is Bunji. His partner, Ashanti Mumin, is pretty special too.

A Dog’s Life: Mumin, who joined Mason in February 2022, recently transferred to Mason’s Police Crisis Response Unit, which handles calls for mental health service. Bunji, an Aussiedoodle therapy dog, accompanies Mumin during his calls. “Bunji has been a great addition to the team,” said Mumin. “We’ve bonded over the past month, and I’ve adopted him as my child.” Bunji and Mumin respond to calls for students who are in emotional distress, but Bunji is also there to support his fellow officers. “There's a stigma when it comes to police canines, so we're changing the title of his job from [therapy dog] to comfort dog. He serves a purpose, and he has been fulfilling that purpose 100 percent.”

Supporting the Campus Community: Exam periods, such as midterms and finals, can be a source of stress for many students. When the stress becomes too much and students reach out for help, it’s Mumin who gets that call. “It can get overwhelming,” said Mumin, who worked for the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office for four years prior to joining Mason and has a background in responding to mental health crises. Many of the calls the duo responds to involve first-year students. “It’s their first time away from home, and they haven’t been exposed to a lot of things that campus life brings.”

K9 Police dog, Bunji and his partner, Officer Ashanti Mumin.
Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Answering the Call: While Mumin is dedicated to improving the mental health of Mason students, he is also looking out for his fellow officers. After noticing that officers assisting community members in crisis didn’t have a strong support system of their own, Mumin formed the Peer Support Team. “Officers’ mental health is very important, because when they're on scene of a call, they need to be 100 percent focused,” said Mumin, who began overseeing the unit’s wellness program in May 2023. “Many officers believe that we need to just suck it up. [Because of this] officers will leave stuff dormant, causing issues in the long run. We needed something for our officers to speak freely about whatever they’re feeling.” And all information shared with the support team is kept confidential, he added.

Outstanding Achievements: Because of his work on the Peer Support Team, Mumin was recently honored with a university Outstanding Achievement Award, but he says he’s not an awards kind of guy. “I don't do things for the awards, but I do things because it's right,” said Mumin. “We need the public to understand that officers do [sometimes need support]. We’re human, and the things that we see day to day, the average human just doesn’t see, but when they do, they suffer some sort of trauma.”

Mason K9 Teams: Bunji and Mumin can usually be found walking around campus during the day and are always looking to connect with community members, but they are not the only Mason K9 team.

K9 Titan and his handler Lt. John O’Hare are Mason’s longest serving K9 unit and have been protecting Mason’s campuses together since 2018. Titan is trained in explosive detection. Together, they have worked to protect a variety of visiting VIPs, including Vice President Kamala Harris and a several presidential candidates.
Cpl. Joseph Toke and K9 Flora started protecting Mason in November 2022 after completing explosive detection training together. They can usually be found out and about meeting new people on campus when they aren’t on an assignment.

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Safe driving record earns Mason the Motor Vehicle Accident Prevention Award

Lauren Reuscher — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 16:37:17 +0000

Safe driving record earns Mason the Motor Vehicle Accident Prevention Award Lauren Reuscher Wed, 06/15/2022 - 12:37

Samantha McClelland, risk manager for ��ӽ紫ý, accepts the Motor Vehicle Safety Award from the Virginia State Police. Photo provided.

��ӽ紫ý has received the Motor Vehicle Accident Prevention Award from the Virginia State Police in recognition of the university's safe driving record. This award recognizes Mason for having a low number of accidents with university-owned and rented vehicles based on the total number of miles driven over the course of the year.

Mason has worked hard to protect and improve its safe driving record, and this success is a result of the efforts of stakeholders around the university.

“There is a general downward trend in the number of accidents reported each year, especially in the number of preventable accidents,” said Joyce Bland-French, director of Mason’s Office of Risk Management. “This emphasizes the active role employees have in maintaining a culture of situational awareness and driver safety.”

Mason currently has about 700 authorized drivers who operate state-owned, rented, or leased vehicles for daily work on campus or university-related travel. Destinations include Mason campuses and sites, conferences or meetings, student recruitment events, activities for sports teams, academic competitions, and more. To operate a vehicle on behalf of the university, one must become an authorized driver per the university’s Vehicle Use Policy.

“I attribute this achievement to the Office of Risk Management’s Safe Driver Program,” said Julie Zobel, associate vice president of Safety, Emergency, and Enterprise Risk Management. “This program has enhanced safe driving awareness and accountability, which has increased drivers’ awareness and minimized Mason’s liability exposure.”

Mason’s Safe Driver Program, led by Samantha McClelland, risk control manager, includes Driver Safety Awareness Training, the Virginia Driver Alert program, and an Accident Review Committee. The initiative fosters a sense of responsibility among vehicle operators and creates an awareness of the need to always drive defensively to reduce the frequency and severity of accidents.

The Virginia Driver Alert program provides the Office of Risk Management with real-time notification of Mason’s authorized drivers’ infractions that could impede their ability to drive while conducting business on behalf of the university. This new feature is free of charge to agencies of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Every accident is evaluated by Mason’s Accident Review Committee, which includes representatives from Risk Management, University Police, Facilities Management, and Environmental Health and Safety. The committee assesses the nature of each accident and makes appropriate recommendations (such as additional driver training, counseling, probationary restriction of driving privileges, etc.). Risk Management tracks and monitors the committee’s recommendations to ensure each driver has completed the required actions.

“The exchange of information between departments and situational awareness introduced by the Safe Driver Program contribute to the safety culture of drivers who operate state-owned or state-rented vehicles at Mason,” said Zobel.

The program has paid off, helping the university limit its liability, conserve resources, and enhance safety on the roads across its campuses and the surrounding region.

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Roughly 4,000 Mason students expected to receive COVID-19 vaccinations this week

John Hollis — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 14:54:59 +0000

Roughly 4,000 Mason students expected to receive COVID-19 vaccinations this week John Hollis Thu, 04/22/2021 - 10:54

Julie Zobel called Wednesday’s initial COVID-19 vaccination clinic at EagleBank Arena for ��ӽ紫ý students the pinnacle of her team’s efforts in combating the spread of the virus.

Working in conjunction with the Virginia Department of Health and regional public health agencies, Mason took a major step toward resuming a normal campus life by starting the inoculation of roughly 4,000 Mason students, all of whom will receive their first of two Moderna shots during scheduled clinics on April 21 and April 23.

��ӽ紫ý student getting vaccine at Eagle Bank Covid-19 Clinic. Photo by: Ron Aira/Creative Services/��ӽ紫ý

“This is what we’ve been working for,” said Zobel, Mason’s associate vice president of Safety, Emergency, and Enterprise Risk Management. “This is why we started this clinic back in January so that we would be able to provide shots to faculty, staff and students. Seeing this come to fruition has been very satisfying.”

Roughly 2,000 students signed up for appointments for Wednesday’s first opportunity for students, and those in attendance were both happy and extremely relieved to be there.

A smoothly run operation by Zobel’s team made sure everybody was in and out of the arena in short order.

“This is a huge relief, and I’m just happy it’s over,” said Naser Al-Alami, a sophomore business major from Jordan. “I was a little apprehensive at first, but the more I read about it and the more people I knew who got the vaccine made me more comfortable.”

Others like biology graduate student and U.S. Army soldier Kyle Avery had different reasons for making sure to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Avery came down with COVID-19 a few months back, with his wife ultimately contracting it as well.

He said it was something he’d rather never experience again.

“I’m just happy it’s done,” he said.

The Mason COVID Response Team celebrated the vaccination of students with T-shirts. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications

Students received Moderna shots on Wednesday, and that is likely to be the case again on Friday, said David Farris, Mason’s executive director of Safety and Emergency Management.

Students who receive their first dose at Mason were given the opportunity to schedule their second dose four weeks later at Mason even if the second dose needed to be scheduled following the conclusion of the spring semester.

Students who don’t reside locally or can’t come back to Mason for their second dose have been encouraged to schedule their second dose near their permanent residence.

“It just feels good to get started,” said Kenneth Jones, a junior design art major from Woodbridge, Virginia. “Hopefully, we can all get back to normal soon.”

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Meet the Mason Nation: Officer Ashanti Mumin

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Safe driving record earns Mason the Motor Vehicle Accident Prevention Award

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