Letter to the Editor: Untimely response?
Colleen Farrell
Issue date: 12/8/05 Section: Opinion
At 2:04 p.m. on Saturday December 3, four students who were unfamiliar with one another and who were also dressed inappropriately to be waiting outside in the mid afternoon 25 degree weather, were outside of East Hall for different purposes but found themselves in the same predicament for 20 minutes; they were locked out of their residence hall. Each student had tried their ID, and waited cold and impatient for the click to follow that signals the door had been unlocked; said the click happened, but the door would not open.
One of the students, the first to arrive on this scene, called the campus police (as any student would hopefully presume to do when in need). The reaction: a few trouble shooting ideas and someone from campus police trying to unlock the door from the station. (Let me remind the student body that the campus police station is located no more than the length of three football fields from East Hall.) The result: four students still locked out of the residence hall with the door jammed shut behind them. The answer: campus police was apparently too busy at now 2:08 p.m. on a rigidly cold, shining, Saturday afternoon; they would attend to the four locked out students (soon to be six when they were joined by two others), when they could.
Frustrated, freezing, and slightly tired from having walked back from a seven hour shift at work, I pondered in the cold the campus police department we have so ready and waiting at our disposal. When do I see the police out and about?
Here are some situations in which I realized you can most assuredly find our campus police in action and doing their best. Stopping the speeders flying around our campus streets (and don't worry, more often than not there is a second officer in a second car to help ensure the first officer in the first car stopped said speeder with the utmost acute accuracy). They can also be found keeping our campus safe from any of those pesky commuters who were 15 minutes late to class and couldn't find a spot on campus close enough in any of the commuter lots, which are ironically and painfully placed farthest away from campus. But what, I ask you what, can they be found doing at (now) 2:11 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon?
I did give weight to the idea that my frustration may be displace; my sarcasm a bit on edge. Perhaps I should be angry at the door; after all it was its fault we found ourselves in our frigid disposition. Yet, it's not about the fact that it was cold outside, it was when minor problems occur on, in, or around this campus; it is often inappropriately dealt, or not dealt with at all by the campus police department.
Do not misunderstand me, I do feel the need to have the campus police, and there are situations that they come through for us in their line of duty. But where were they at 2:04 p.m. this past Saturday morning? A frustrated girl late for a meeting, and kept cold, just wanted to know.
One of the students, the first to arrive on this scene, called the campus police (as any student would hopefully presume to do when in need). The reaction: a few trouble shooting ideas and someone from campus police trying to unlock the door from the station. (Let me remind the student body that the campus police station is located no more than the length of three football fields from East Hall.) The result: four students still locked out of the residence hall with the door jammed shut behind them. The answer: campus police was apparently too busy at now 2:08 p.m. on a rigidly cold, shining, Saturday afternoon; they would attend to the four locked out students (soon to be six when they were joined by two others), when they could.
Frustrated, freezing, and slightly tired from having walked back from a seven hour shift at work, I pondered in the cold the campus police department we have so ready and waiting at our disposal. When do I see the police out and about?
Here are some situations in which I realized you can most assuredly find our campus police in action and doing their best. Stopping the speeders flying around our campus streets (and don't worry, more often than not there is a second officer in a second car to help ensure the first officer in the first car stopped said speeder with the utmost acute accuracy). They can also be found keeping our campus safe from any of those pesky commuters who were 15 minutes late to class and couldn't find a spot on campus close enough in any of the commuter lots, which are ironically and painfully placed farthest away from campus. But what, I ask you what, can they be found doing at (now) 2:11 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon?
I did give weight to the idea that my frustration may be displace; my sarcasm a bit on edge. Perhaps I should be angry at the door; after all it was its fault we found ourselves in our frigid disposition. Yet, it's not about the fact that it was cold outside, it was when minor problems occur on, in, or around this campus; it is often inappropriately dealt, or not dealt with at all by the campus police department.
Do not misunderstand me, I do feel the need to have the campus police, and there are situations that they come through for us in their line of duty. But where were they at 2:04 p.m. this past Saturday morning? A frustrated girl late for a meeting, and kept cold, just wanted to know.