Fletcher Ross Devery, also known as Ross, is an SHC Public Safety officer who is known by students for working the night shift and safely returning students to their dorms during the night. His golf cart steering broke at the beginning of the spring semester, limiting where he could go conveniently and safely on campus.
Ross stated, “I will patrol around some, which would obviously be easier to do on a golf cart, just for ease of getting to tighter spaces on campus.”
Ross currently has the option of either driving a gator, that only can fit one other person or driving the new Public Safety vehicle that can fit four people. “With street-legal vehicles, you have to be on the road. Then, with the gator, it’s wide enough that you can’t get to all the sidewalks, which cuts off 20 to 30 percent of campus,” said Ross.
Ross had a working golf cart until the first couple weeks of the spring semester of 2024. It has been with maintenance ever since the steering became an issue. He stated, “I hope we get the golf cart back, but from what I can tell, public safety doesn’t have the funds to fix it or replace it.”
Ross is a fan amongst students of all grades.
Friday and Saturday nights when he is working the night shifts after he locks up Mckinney’s, he goes and sits at the Fairways near the picnic table. Ross likes to do this because then he is there when people need help, instead of being 10 minutes away. Ross stated, “If you need help that is what I’m here to do.”
Ross is known for driving people back to their rooms late at night when they are in need of a safe ride. He stated, “People see the golf cart and know it’s safe, that they can go up to it and talk to the people driving it.”
Senior Brooke Borgmeyer stated, “Ross is a nice guy and his golf cart is iconic because it has gotten many students safely back to their dorms late at night.”
At night there are a lot of dark spots on campus due to lack of light posts. Ross stated, “Personally, I’m not sure there’s any number of lights we can have on this campus that will make it bright enough at night.”
This is a safety situation where Ross driving people back to their dorms keeps students safe due to the blind spots on campus, but it is difficult for him to do that now without the ‘iconic’ golf cart that everyone recognizes.
Ross stated, “There have been discussions about getting more lights and concerns about blind spots,” but Ross does not know if that will be happening anytime soon.
For the current lighting around campus, Ross does a light survey every month to make sure they are all working.
Pub Safe has a person on call 24/7 so students can call (251)-380-4444 or email [email protected].
