There may be truth to the joke at Carleton that security is only ever around when you don’t want them to be.
This year alone, there have been three reported sexual assaults on campus, which means there were probably about 30 that weren’t reported, based on a statistic from the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women that says only one in 10 sexual assaults gets reported.
Now add a horde of students in the tunnels, armed with their own belts, almost starting a brawl — something I’ve heard was reported to security, though university safety denies it happened. Oh, and reports of gunshots being heard outside the Unicentre, both of which happened within a 24-hour time span.
There’s something wrong with this school.
The recent rash of incidents on campus have got many students worried about their safety on campus, and some of them outright scared.
Security is clearly not convincing anyone that they’re secure, which makes it seem like they may not be doing their jobs. The question is: what are they doing wrong?
There are serious inadequacies with the physical security infrastructure on campus. I’m talking emergency phones and cameras.
People have had to wait 10, 12, even 15 rings for an answer on the emergency phone — if they even get one. If someone intends to hurt me and I have to wait more than 10 rings for someone to answer the phone, I’d be better off trying to tweet for help. Not to mention, these phones aren’t even accessible to people in wheelchairs.
The camera network needs improvement, too. The designated “safe path,” which is sparsely dotted with cameras, isn’t enough. The tunnels are a haven for all kinds of dangerous situations and they also need to be monitored. While university safety says there are cameras in the tunnels, I’ve never seen any, and I specifically look out for them. These cameras — if there really are any — need to be visible in order to be effective.
How many people are stupid enough to break the law in front of a camera? Not many. So more visible cameras in the tunnels, please.
But that’s just the infrastructure.
Security officers are also distributed very unevenly throughout campus.
For several weeks, the door on the seventh floor of Glengarry House was broken open, basically granting floor access to anyone who could get into the building.
Meanwhile, a flea could not get past Oliver’s Pub security if it was a day under 19, and there are always special constables sitting just outside the door, ready to spring into action.
Students in residence need to get the same consideration as those at the campus bar. Besides, there are probably more drunks on seventh Glen than in Ollie’s on the average Friday.
A Stormont House res fellow told me she sees security officers once a night, while I’m not surprised if I see them five times a night in Glengarry. I’ve heard of a student falling out of a window or roof in Renfrew House. Meanwhile, I’ve been written up twice for menial offences and received a noise complaint while watching a movie. That’s a problem.
But distribution of officers isn’t the biggest issue. What’s worse is the attitude with which officers approach these issues.
When witnesses approached security about the gunshot incident, the officer allegedly treated them with a very “dismissive” attitude, according to Arun Smith, a sixth-year political science student.
Although university safety denies this, Smith said he questioned security over the phone, and was frustrated to the point where he reported the officer for unprofessional conduct.
To be fair, I spoke to a former Commissionaires Ottawa employee (one of Ottawa’s largest security firms) who said that, in the interest of keeping the public from panicking, security sometimes appears to take reports lightly while treating the issue seriously.
But if I’ve witnessed a gun being fired or if I’ve been sexually assaulted, I don’t want security to appear calm. I want them to look like they’re taking it as seriously as I am. Otherwise, I will panic.
Folks, security on campus is a mess right now. We have to make our voices heard. Take your issues to Carleton University Students’ Association, to the Graduate Students’ Association, to housing, to the administration, and to the Rideau River Residence Association. Write emails to president Roseann Runte. Go outside the university. Write to David Chernushenko, the city councillor for our ward.
Let the world know we demand a safer campus.
– Riley Evans,
first-year journalism
