Campus Safety review board: fair to students or unnecessary politics?

by Joe Clock

Julian Dautremont-Smith, Chief Justice of the Peer Review Board, has been meeting with administrators to promote the creation of a Campus Safety review board to respond to complaints of inappropriate action by Campus Safety.

Dautremont-Smith’s idea is based on the review boards that are formed to deal with students who are in serious violation of College policies, and would be made up of one student, one faculty member, and a staff member who was not part of Residence Life.

Currently, students with complaints against Campus Safety can meet with the Director of Campus Safety, Bill Curtin, or Campus Safety Supervisor Benny Yanez to discuss them. The Campus Safety officers involved are then able to respond to the complaints, and Curtin or Yanez will decide what action is necessary.

After this process, if a student feels that Curtin and Yanez’s decision did not fairly deal with a complaint, they can bring it to College Provost, Jane Atkinson, who can overrule Campus Safety’s decision.

That this procedure is not in the Pathfinder is one of Dautremont-Smith’s motivations for creating a Campus Safety review board. If a review board were created, students would follow the existing procedure, but Atkinson would have the power to form a review board if she felt it was necessary.

Dautremont-Smith feels that a review board would be more fair than the existing procedure, saying, “The perception with Bill Curtin is that he is not really on your side, that he doesn’t really understand…He has to be on good working terms with his officers, and so he may be more likely to favor them if it is the word of a Campus Safety Officer against the word of a student.”

Curtin, however, is opposed to the formation of a Campus Safety review board. “I think it is redundant; I think it will hamper our ability to deal with officer complaints,” he said, continuing that it would add a layer of “intrigue that is not going to be helpful” and “politicize the event, and take it to a level that we really don’t want it to go to.”

Curtin defends Campus Safety’s current procedure for dealing with complaints, pointing out that while they happen relatively infrequently, they are helpful to Campus Safety and are dealt with effectively.

“Officers always learn a lot when we sit down with them and talk about some of the interactions they have had that have been negative,” Curtin said.

Curtin cites that Campus Safety let an officer go last fall in response to a series of complaints directed toward that person. The officer violated his probationary period, which was then extended and he again violated, after which he was terminated.

Students do have influence over some aspects of Campus Safety’s actions. Every time Campus Safety hires an officer, Curtin contacts ASLC and invites them to send a student to participate in the interview panel.

Both Curtin and Dautremont-Smith are strongly in favor of student participation on the interview panels. Curtin says that student input has been very helpful in hiring officers. Dautremont-Smith adds that, “the program should definitely be continued, it is very valuable, it is not a substitute for student input when Campus Safety acts inappropriately, however.”

Drawing attention to sexual violence

by Bonnie Thompson

Take Back the Night, three days of events designed to raise awareness of sexual violence, is returning to Lewis & Clark March 16 through March 19.

Each spring, Take Back the Night creates a vast spectrum of fierce emotions. Students involved in the events are overwhelmed by the amount of support that Take Back the Night offers them. But still, there is a stigma attached to Take back the Night that that has often overshadowed the events purpose.

Not everyone on campus is convinced of the value of Take Back the Night. But, the statistics for sexual violence make it a hard subject to dismiss. One out of every four women will be sexually assaulted by the time she finishes college and one out of every three women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime. Most everyone on campus knows someone who is a survivor of sexual violence.

Take Back the Night will include speakers, workshops, a dinner, and other events. Also, on Wednesday, March 19, 324 students and faculty will wear armbands to represent the proportion of the College community that statistically would be victims of sexual violence by the time they graduate.

The aim of Take Back the Night is to heighten awareness about sexual violence. Awareness leads students to take responsibility for protecting themselves, their friends, and other members of the community from sexual violence. Sexual violence, although more prevalent with women, is a problem for the whole community to think about. One of the most important elements of the events is healing. There are many survivors of sexual violence amongst us, and these three days in March give us a time to come together in support of those who have experienced rape and sexual assault.

The Take Back the Night Committee is dedicated to reaching out to all members of the Lewis and Clark community. Men are encouraged to participate in the event, for they too are touched by the reality of rape. This year, more than ever, Take Back the Night is reaching out to people who are new to the campus, and those people knew about Take Back the Night in the past, but did not choose to take part. Everyone is encouraged to attend planning meetings, Wedsdays at 6:00 in Thayer. This year, please join with your fellow students to support survivors of sexual violence, and take a stand against future violence.

IndyMedia videos show local protest

by Nicholas Sola

Portland IndyMedia aired "Videos from the Resistance" in Council Chambers on Monday. The majority of the videos were of protests that happened in Oregon within the past six months.

"The wealthy and powerful interests do not want these stories told," Deva, a representative of Portland IndyMedia, said.

This was the second time that Portland IndyMedia has shown videos at Lewis & Clark College this year. The first was in early February.

The videos covered different protests. The first video documented a protest calling for the resignation of Portland Police Chief Mark A. Kroeker in November 2002. Kroeker gave awards to two officers who had killed a Mexican man in a mental hospital.

The second video advertised a summer program that protested the deforestation of public forests.

The third video was of an anti-war protest by Reed students at a Shell gas station in February. This video was shown at the February presentation.

The fourth video, also shown in February, showed high school students protesting Measure 28 at the State Capital in Salem.

The fifth video showed another student protest, this one in downtown Portland, OR, in which the protesters walked into city hall. While in city hall, the protesters met Mayor Vera Katz.

The screening ended with video taken on the day of the screening. It showed seven protesters who entered the Federal Building in Portland and blocked the entrance to the metal detector. They were protesting a possible war against Iraq.

"Why are we spending billions of dollars on a war in Iraq when people at home in Oregon are suffering from under-funded schools and social services? No war in Iraq!" Josh Raisler Cohn, one of the protesters, said.

There were approximately thirty people in attendance at Monday's screening.

"Today was good. More and more come as people find out," Deva said. "We'd love to see the whole place full of people."

Laughing Hare Books was also present, selling books, magazines, stickers and pins.