Community Concerns

A number of news items this week relate to topics that I’ve blogged on in the past and will form the basis for this week’s posting.  The first was a story by Marc Fisher that appeared in the Washington Post on Sunday:  “At Va. Tech, Near Silence for a Student’s Anguished Cry”.

A young man named Daniel Kim committed suicide at Virginia Tech University in December. Daniel was a loner but he did play World of Warcraft and people got to know him through that connection. One such person was Shaun Pribus, a senior at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who sent an e-mail to the Virginia Tech health centre saying: “Daniel has been acting very suicidal recently, purchasing a $200 pistol and claiming he’ll go through with it,” “We are very concerned for his safety. . . . please forward this to who can give him the best care.”

Despite promises after the April shootings that the Virginia Tech would be more responsive to warning signs, despite written protocols requiring that any student who makes “any gesture or reference to suicide . . . must be seen by the psychologist on call,” no one from Tech’s counseling center contacted Daniel or his family. Instead the university referred the matter to local police who drove to his off-campus apartment and asked if he was OK. They reported back that he was fine. That was the end of it except then Daniel shot himself.

One sentence from Fisher’s article caught my attention. “After Pribush’s e-mail was received by the university’s Care Team — counselors and administrators who meet weekly to discuss troubled students — no one made any effort to get in touch with his parents.” Like other universities, we have created a similar “care” team in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings. The notion is that the university would contact parents in a case like this in spite of any privacy legislation. However, Dean of Students Tom Brown is quoted as saying: “We really need to have written protocols as a foundation to stand on because you can get into all kinds of legal and privacy issues,” said Brown. If the police check “had indicated any cause for concern, we would have contacted the family.”

Our rule here is that we err on the side of contacting the parents and accept the consequences if the student complains. There is no question that in hindsight Dean Brown wishes he had made the same call.

In September I wrote about several sexual assaults that had occurred on campuses in Canada and the U.S. In Wednesday’s Toronto Star there was an article about the fifth sexual assault that occurred on the York University Campus this year. Apparently the assault took place Friday night in a stairwell at Founders College but was not reported until Monday.  The story was also written up in the York student newspaper – The Excalibur  with additional comments from student government leaders in the CITY TV site. The issue that the students have with the university is that the administration has not hired consultants to do a safety audit. Apparently the university reviewed its security procedures after the September attacks and implemented new procedures this Sunday – after the most recent attack.

University campuses are very difficult to make secure due to their openness. People are able to come and go pretty much as they please on a campus. Residences however should be different. Doors are locked and only residents are supposed to be able to gain entry. Students are a trusting lot though and when someone their own age asks to be let in to see a friend, or because they “forgot their key”, the person is let in. People will often “tail gate” behind someone who gained legitimate entry to the building. We even had a local television reporter tail gate behind a student and show it on TV just to show how easy it is. I would never blame a victim and have absolutely no knowledge of the case at York. However, my message to students is to always lock the door to your own dorm room (for a variety of reasons) and also be aware of who is following you into your building. We have several safety features built in to all of our residences but the best feature is for students to take responsibility for the own safety as well. The York University’s Security Department offers these other tips:

• Always be alert to your surroundings and the people around you. Walk confidently and at a steady pace.
• If you feel uncomfortable with a situation or person, leave.
• Learn to trust your intuition; the human brain is never more intuitive than when it is at risk.
• If you work/study alone or after normal business hours, ensure doors and windows are properly closed and locked.
• Keep a written record of obscene telephone calls, harassing behaviour and save harassing e-mails and letters.
• Never assume that an individual wandering through a building is a staff member. Asking simple questions such as, “May I help you” or “Who are you here to see?” can discourage the dishonest without intimidating the legitimate visitor.
• Never leave visitors alone in an office, work or reception area. Never disclose confidential information to a stranger whether over the phone or in person.
• Report graffiti, homophobic, or racist behaviour, as well as suspicious activity, crime and property damage.
• Report problems with safety equipment, such as discharged fire extinguishers, damaged emergency telephones, burnt out lights and malfunctioning electronic door access systems.

In another story related to campus security, Brock University unveiled its “Lockdown procedure” for on-campus threats. According to the article the procedure would be implemented in the event of an active shooter on campus, serious approaching weather conditions or a hazardous substance spill. The procedures themselves are on the Brock website at http://www.brocku.ca/campussecurity/policy.php and a pdf can be downloaded.

In response to the shootings at Virginia Tech as well as Dawson College and the general need for campuses to become more secure with better plans such as the ones at Brock, the Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUB) is planning a workshop on emergency preparedness. The workshop will take place in Toronto in mid March and I may attend.

Earlier in the Fall I wrote on neighbourhood relations. This item hit the news again in Oshawa this week. The City of Oshawa had proposed a bylaw that would only be applied to the immediate area of University of Ontario Institute of Technology (quite a mouthful – call it UOIT) and would require landlords to obtain a $250 annual permit (per bedroom)before they could rent out a house as well as adhering to minimum standards for health and safety. The number of bedrooms would be limited to four and landlords would also be required to submit detailed plans for property maintenance and parking to the city.

A public meeting was held at the local Sikorski Hall on Monday and Maclean’s blogger Joey Coleman was there. According to Joey, local residents complained about the students while the students (and some permanent residents) were concerned that the bylaw would force students into substandard housing. City council cancelled next weeks vote on the bylaw and scheduled a special meeting of the development services committee for next Monday. Other municipalities with universities are watching the developments in Oshawa. My hope is that the bylaw is not enacted. The city would do better if it got people who rent to students to provide safe housing.

Finally, the 2007 McMaster University Student Affairs Annual Report is on the web!