Since campus climate tensions began to rise two weeks ago, safety on campus has become a much discussed and controversial topic. Students are asking themselves who is looking out for them and whether these people have their best interests at heart.
On Monday evening the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, as part of their initiative “Get Engaged”, organized a safe space for students from all backgrounds to talk about safety on campus and bridge the gaps between DePauw Public Safety and the student body. Members of the administration, students and Public Safety Officers were present including Angela Nally, Director of Public Safety.
Although this meeting was planned before the protest on Sept. 23, it touched base on issues that arose on campus because of the protest. The meeting was divided into three areas of discussion: Jurisdiction, Judgment and Just(us).
Community service chair, education chair and secretary for Zeta Phi Beta, senior Iesha Brooks, explained the event and why they decided to have it.
“We’ve never had an event where Public Safety has been able to communicate with students on what their role is in terms of campus safety or who they are or how long they’ve been here" she said. “We just wanted this to be a great opportunity to connect those two communities of faculty, staff, administrators and students with Public Safety by giving information or discussing misconceptions of stereotypes, but with the protest that did occur it kind of made it more of a necessary conversation to happen because we never have those conversations.”
During the meeting, solutions were discussed to help make students feel safer on campus. Some of the ideas were having a more detailed introduction to first-years on what Public Safety is, have Public Safety meet students in a more casual atmosphere and have conversations with The Board of Trustees to increase safety. Another major issue discussed was whether or not Public Safety could be considered an ally.
The Director of Multicultural Life, Vince Greer said that Public Safety is absolutely an ally.
“There are is lot of things that go on behind the scenes that students don’t always understand or might not even recognize that are going on," Greer said. “This is an opportunity to do something that’s more visible for the student body, but there are many things behind the scenes that go on.”
During the meeting many questions and concerned were answered and students were constantly being invited to pitch in their own ideas.
First-year Marianne Martinez thought the meeting was productive and made her feel more comfortable on campus.
“I think that was very helpful due to the fact that I didn’t feel as comfortable before to actually talk and go approach any of the people in Public Safety," she said. “There was an incident in C-Street where one of my friends got intoxicated and I was like ‘Should I call Public Safety? Should I not?' And then I ended up calling Public Safety and I didn’t like the guy that was on duty, but now I trust Angela Nally and Charlene Shrewsbury.”
