Editorial

Security Lacking

The College administration has recently undertaken several new student safety measures, such as organizing a task force to deal with sexual offenses and running a pilot program restricting dorm access for a week during Winter Term. But these minor adjustments have been ineffectual in addressing the broader issues of campus security. Simultaneously, the administration has not been forthcoming with information regarding issues that directly influence students’ safety. On a campus as small as Oberlin’s, it is very likely that a threat to an individual student or group of students will also endanger other students. The most vital weapon that students can have to keep themselves safe is knowledge.
There were three alleged rapes on the Oberlin campus in 2001. Necessarily, there is information surrounding the events, especially pertaining to the victims, that needs to be treated with a level of sensitivity, but everyone on the campus should also be as aware as possible about the facts that will influence their safety. The administration currently accomplishes this communications through security briefs issued to students’ mail boxes, a wholly inadequate approach.
The College needs to give as much information as possible; moreover, for their communication to be complete they need to hear back about students’ concerns. The numerous posters on campus reading “Rape at Oberlin: the issue didn’t go away over Winter Term” and the like, attest that there are indeed still student concerns. In a Dec. 7 letter to the Review, President Nancy Dye said, “At the beginning of the spring semester, I will call for a campus wide conversation on sexual ethics as well as the vexed issues surrounding rape and sexual assault in Oberlin.” In the same letter, Dye talked of creating a task force to deal with sexual assault policy. This is exactly what the issue needs, but already two weeks have gone by in the spring semester and there has been no such discussion held. The extent of campus dialogue on sexual assault this spring so far is students reading other students posters and a few letters to the Review, and though it is early in the semester, this needs to change — and change quick.
Even though the College seems to be headed in the right direction on this issue, they must make sure that they continue to make new information available. On Jan. 9, 2002, a court action was filed against Oberlin College pertaining to the alleged rape at last year’s Drag Ball. The suit revolves around the question of whether the College was negligent in the hiring process in their prior retention of a man the plaintiff describes as a “known sexual predator.” (see article page 1) The College has denied negligence, but has also not been proactive in their discussion of the case or its implications.
The College’s experimental policies regarding dorm access over Winter Term were, as well, carried out without informing the student body in advance of the changes, preventing them from voicing their concerns. “One thing I agree with is that the information sharing was poorly done,” Associate Director of Residential Life and Services Tracy Murry said. (see article page 1) And in fact, some students were worried that the new procedures would actually compromise their safety by leading other students to prop doors more often.
None of these measures, however, prevented 12 rooms in Afrikan Heritage House and Third World House from being broken into and having property stolen sometime over the winter break and Winter Term. In these cases, the perpetrator gained access to the rooms through the use of a master key which had previously been reported missing. The incidents shine a troubling light on all students’ safety: how did a key just turn up missing and go so long without appropriate actions (i.e., changing the locks) being taken? Why, in crimes involving unobstructed access to students’ quarters by an unknown party, has perhaps more than a month gone by without either substantial progress in the investigation or a thoughtful reassessment of the security situation which allowed the crimes to occur in the first place? And in the event that such a reassessment is indeed going on, why are students not involved?
One thing is crystal clear from these accrued security-related questions: Oberlin College is not doing an adequate job protecting its students, and is doing an even worse job facilitating students’ ability to protect themselves through information. A thorough reassessment of campus security IS in order. Most students know Safety and Security only through parking tickets and Security Notebook, and this is unacceptable. Oberlin’s administration must, in consultation with both the Office of Safety and Security and the student body, begin a wholesale reevaluation of security at Oberlin, and turn it from a force of parking cops into an institution which the student body trusts with its safety and security.