Student Safety at RYLA

Supervision

The entire time students are at RYLA, they are chaperoned by their group facilitator. Most activities are confined to one building.

Students are not permitted to leave their groups and they are not allowed to roam the campus without their group facilitator.

The RYLA schedule is very full and students are not allowed to go for a run or to exercise independently.

Medical/Personal Emergencies

While we hope that emergencies never arise while at RYLA, our Facilitators have been instructed how to respond. On the back of each student’s name card is their medical information.

Emergency Contact Info:

We hope that parents/guardians will not need to reach us, however if an EMERGENCY should arise, please see the contact information in our Contacts page.

Our sessions are mostly located in the Student center. The RYLA information desk, located in the student center, is staffed for the entire time that the students are awake.

Campus Police

Fitchburg State University Police Department’s main priority is to provide the safest and secure environment possible for the students, faculty, staff and visitors that comprise the institution’s community. We believe that safety is everyone’s responsibility and encourage our students, faculty and staff to engage in community policing and report any suspicious activity to University Police.

Vehicles/Transportation

The student may choose from the following options: 

  • They may be driven to and from the conference by a family member.

  • If the student has a driver’s license, they may drive themselves.  Note: Students will not be able to access/visit their vehicles during RYLA.

  • The Rotary Club that sponsored their attendance is prepared to assist with transportation if necessary. Please contact your sponsoring Rotary Club if needed.

Cell Phones

Students may bring their cell phones. 

NO TEXTING/CELL PHONE USE is allowed during sessions, unless there is an emergency.

Overnight stays

In years when overnights are part of the programming, we strive to create the experience of going away to college.  The following rules apply:

Dorms

The RYLA conference is co­ed, but the dorms are not. Boys and girls stay in separate rooms on separate floors. Rotarians/adults are on­ duty monitoring the halls after the final evening room check, and all night long.
 
The RYLA information desk, located in the student center, is staffed for the entire time that the students are awake.

Nighttime in the Dorms

The dorms are accessible via card key access only.

At quiet time all students are in the dorms. We conduct a room to room search to ensure that every student is in their assigned bed before we go to bed each night.

Students are instructed to stay in their rooms unless there is an emergency.

At quiet time/lights out, each floor floor has a dedicated hall monitor that sits awake in the hall by the stairs & elevator. This person can see all doors on that floor.