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Written by: The Vanguard Editorial Board
Almost everyone reading this is already aware that our small community was rocked by an uncommon story of crime and violence on South Campus last Wednesday, but after a week, our Editorial Board has reflected on the situation.
Bentley and its administration fortunately do not have to deal regularly with this level of violence, and generally, the University performed admirably. Dean Shepardson e-mailing the campus bright and early to inform students about the situation that they were safe and that the act was not random was certainly the proper action to take. The e-mail needed to be sent before the rumor mill ramped up, and the Dean’s 7:12 a.m. send time ensured that most of the student body received the information before even waking up.
The University tried to keep up with media coverage in terms of conveying information, but privacy policies and “under investigation” procedure stood squarely in its way. The University did not have to utilize the emergency system, which involves texting all students and staff, as the suspects were aptly apprehended by the University Police, who did a fine job of investigating the situation.
That being said, the University failed to subvert the lack of information parents of Bentley students suffered from, and thus scores of frantic parents called or e-mailed their students, hoping to make sure they were safe. With a media that reports almost instantly on anything violent (“If it bleeds, it leads”), parents as far as Texas were finding out information before Bentley students were able to even read their morning e-mails, and thus an aviodable pseudo panic.
The University clearly should have e-mailed students’ parents, which they do regularly for fundraising and Family Weekend, and informed them that their students were out of harm’s way.
However, the stabbing brings to light much deeper issues than who the administration is e-mailing or what is being said to the media. The question every Bentley student should still be asking is: “Is Bentley doing everything possible to keep the campus and I safe?” This Editorial Board certainly cannot give that question an affirmative answer.
We have a well-trained University Police force that watches campus through camera banks and regularly patrols the roads and occasionally the residence halls, and a large resident assistant staff that is on duty nightly. Card access to residence halls limits access mostly to Bentley ID carriers, and restrictions that don’t allow late-night access to any building other than your own are also in place. But beyond the actual measures of safety that the campus has, the Bentley community has almost an arrogant sense of protection, with the basis that “nothing ever happens here,” so thus it must be very safe.
This assumption is what most endangers us.
The fact of the matter is that Waltham is not the safest city in Massachusetts, and is actually no stranger to crime and violence. Perhaps because students rarely watch the local evening news and no local newspapers are placed on campus, students are woefully ignorant of the fact that Waltham is not a safe and secure suburb, and thus think that campus is not in danger of crime. Tell this to the students listed in our Police Logs who have laptops and televisions stolen from their rooms, and GPS’s or stereo systems removed from their cars. Almost nightly, strangers can be seen dumping sofas into our dumpsters, and every now and then you’ll even see a drunk or two at the South Campus bus stop who don’t belong on campus.
While our campus has thankfully been free of major acts of violence, especially from the world outside 175 Forest Street, perhaps now is the time to take measures against such violence. While Benjamin Franklin once argued that one should not exchange liberty for security, how many other colleges can you name that do not have community assistants, who sign in guests as they enter the residence halls? How many campuses can you simply drive on without passing through a gate with a police officer? The answer is very few, if any. Bentley lacks both.
The two “guests” involved in the stabbing would have likely been turned away by either of these checkpoint provisions, and Bentley students would not suffer some unimaginable hardship if both were enacted. Maybe even a revamped guest policy, involving signing in and out, would be smart.
Bentley has spent years focusing on making campus more enjoyable for its students with a new student center, residence halls, library, and athletic center, and taken up the causes of ethics, diversity, global thinking, wellness, and sustainability. But it has stumbled to realize that the safety of its students is now a legitimate concern.
Resources should in fact be devoted to that endeavor before all else, and we hope student government, the student body and the administration realize this before the unthinkable happens again.
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