By Amanda Smith
As a small campus, students are not aware or told what could happen in case of emergencies, the only safety tips they are taught are fire drills and lock downs. With Haskell being an open-campus, anyone can access the grounds, which not many of the students know. And there are non-students who find their way into the dorms without an RA knowing, securities are not fully equipped, and there’s an increase of student violations. Haskell needs to ensure that it will do the best it can to protect its students, by making changes, providing the security with the right equipment and information on certain situations.
Pocahontas, Blalock, Powhatan, Winona Hall, Roe Cloud, Curtis Hall, Off-Campus and Osceola & Keokuk Halls currently reside students from different tribes, who are here to continue their education. Out of all the dorms, 2 stood out as having the most reported incidents, and many of these incidents students need to know, what happens within the campus they stay on, because it’s for their safety and to become more aware of their surroundings. Haskell has over 100 hundred students that stay in each dorm and they are overseen by Residential Advisors/ student residential advisors. Roe Cloud, Residential Advisor Melinda Blueback commented, “security here will help whenever there’s a situation, we just call them and they’re here to help. It is hard at times because sometimes it’ll be quiet, we don’t have problems and other times there’s more, and usually happens after midnight. And it’s getting to the week days, we never know when, so we have to watch everybody”. Roe Cloud resides over 300 hundred students and there were some students who did get kicked out, which were mostly the men. Beside Roe Cloud, Osceola-Keokuk is a co-ed residential dorm that houses over 200 hundred students, and the residential advisor who works the night shifts, spoke on behalf of non-students who come into the dorm and what kind of situations they experience. Residential advisor commented, “Here lately it’s been quiet, get the usual phone calls from a student upstairs, “can you come up here and tell these people to be quiet because I’m trying to sleep and their being loud”, and that type of stuff but we get some of these every now and then. But not any bad ones, they’re all about the same, we get up and do rounds every hour, on certain days”. As for the non-students coming in without an RA knowing is becoming an issue, but they try their best to resolve that problem. And his comment on that was, “it depends if were on rounds and there’s nobody else down here because we actually do need two people on. Two people on every shift, but were shorthanded and as far as coming in, I don’t know everyone, but I know their faces.” To being safer, all dorms only have one way for students to enter and that’s the front door. Yes, students are old enough to know what the rules are, but most go about their way to not follow a simple rule.
Statistics show what kind of incidents happen on-campus, the number of students who committed these incidents, along with their sanctions, but the only results we couldn’t get was which student committed the incident. These sanctions vary: alternate HCCAAP, Community Service 20, 40, 50, 80, 160, 180 hours, Counseling, Dismissed, Diversion determined by Douglas County Court, Emergency Suspension Level 1, Emergency Suspension Level 2, Emergency Suspension Level 3, Fine $25.00, $50.00, $75.00, $100.00, $200.00, Fire Safety, HCAAP, Ineligible for Housing, Letter of Apology, Loss of visitation for 1 year, Medical Amnesty, Medication Referral, Notice to Vacant, Official Warning, Pending, Social Probation, and lastly Unresolved.
Olivia Whittington, a sophomore who currently stays in Roe Cloud commented, “I think the security here on campus is doing an okay job. But there does seem to be too little security for the size of Haskell. So yes, I do think there should be at least a few more security on campus. Honestly, I could not say, from my experiences of them, whether they would be prepared for any kind of situation. I usually just see them in their little security office or prowling around the parking lot. I never thought about the fact that Haskell is an open campus. But I asked my friend how she felt about it and she said she felt uncomfortable. I was not aware that there were many incidents at Haskell. But I guess with security being right in Roe Cloud and the fact that I live on the third floor I feel a little bit safer”.
Nathan Fraley, a senior had a lot to say about what he thinks about the campus security, from his point of view he gave a lot of good points explaining why he thinks our security should change and be more active on campus. Since starting here at Haskell Fraley seen some changes but seems like they should do more than what their job title says. Fraley commented, “they’re too strict, they’re not socially accepted, relation with security and students are not good at all, and I feel like that’s the problem right there. They’re not real cops, they have no official training like they were police officers, yes they may have worked in field security, maybe, but they’re not real cops, so why act like real law enforcement, they’re there to observe and report”. As a concern student about safety for himself and his fellow classmates Fraley states, “Yes, I would like to see more security officers, but more security officers that are cooler, I would love to see every security guard at every dorm post, instead of driving around”. As a student, who’s been here since he was a freshman he seen many ongoing situations that prove the security don’t take their job seriously and how they’re unprofessional, an example he uses was, “a security, put on blast, being unprofessional and made a campus wide announcement for someone parked in the fire lane, that is an example of how they treat situations”.
Freshman, Marcileena Mark, resides in Osceola-Keokuk, and from her experience she comments, “I think security does a fine job on campus and are always patrolling around, I don’t agree with getting more, but I do think they could get more done if they were assigned to a dorm, while taking shifts to patrol. I trust and understand that if anything were to happen they would do their best to protect and serve Haskell and its members”. Not many students will voice their opinion about security, or about the school, because some don’t know about it or just see it but won’t talk about it, as a first-year student here at Haskell Mark, stated, “I like that Haskell is an open campus, it makes me feel freer to move around while on school grounds. I personally haven’t heard of any incidents, but understand the concern for safety, I do feel safe but wouldn’t mind a little more protection on campus, maybe we can get emergency poles posted around campus so that (if someone were attacked or in danger, all they would have to do is push the button and security, and police would come)”.
Security has a lot on their hand, from the safety of the students, being able to have the right equipment, knowing what to do in case of emergency issues, patrolling not only at night but every day, their job is to protect and keep the students safe, and they have a lot of expectations to uphold. No matter what type of situation happens, they as officers are to resolve any problems. And it’s up to the students as well, there are some who don’t care about the security but others who do feel the need for safety on this campus. And its Haskell job as a college to provide for the students with safety, which is the number one focus.
