Editorial

As I’m sure many of you may know there was a meeting held last Tuesday the 15th of November at 9:30pm in DANA 107. It was designed as a forum for students, faculty, staff and administration to come together and discuss recent events. If you have been living under a rock for the past month you would not know that the two major events I am talking about are the fire that destroyed a home rented by a number of UB students and the shooting that put a UB graduate student in the hospital. Both incidents are still under investigation but, following the shooting, action was taken in part by the administration and in part by the Bridgeport police department to address the safety concerns not only of the students within the campus boundaries, but also in the areas that border the campus. Recently students have voiced concerns (especially after the fire) that they feel the University has an obligation to make sure that they are protected even if they are not within the confines of the campus boundaries. Before the shooting (which occurred on campus) the response from the University was that the school does not have jurisdiction outside the campus boundaries. Mandatory meetings held on November third and tenth emphasized that the University is well regarded for its safety rating and on campus security system and that the safest place to live is in the residence halls. Two days later on Saturday November 12th at just before 10:00pm a security guard patrolling outside the student center heard what he thought were fire crackers and shouting. He headed in the direction of Lafayette Street and found a student who reported that he had been shot. The student was sent to a local hospital and is expected to make a full recovery. That night a mass of students stood outside the security office wanting answers and not really knowing how to get them. They were sad, scared and angry. The crowd was made up mostly of International graduate students, and many if not all of them were from Southeast Asia (as was the shooting victim). Many felt that the University had let them down. In the November 15th meeting a number of problems were illuminated. A question was asked of the assistant chief of police regarding the number of police required to protect the city and he stated that the city of Bridgeport police department is short handed by 90 officers and will not be filling those slots for at least one year. This realization, however disheartening, pales in comparison to the statement made by the President of the University, Neil Albert Salonen. When asked how students can trust that changes will be made in light of reports that the cleaning service, for all the student complaints, is not much improved. Also one student accused security personnel of using rude language when giving direction to students. In response President Salonen exclaimed and I quote: “You give me a name and a date and they are gone!” I hope that President Salonen meant well when he made that exclamation, but I cannot help but wonder why he made it (or why he repeated it). As a student I felt that he was just speaking to our emotions. In essence telling us what he thought we wanted to hear. We are in college, I would hope the best way to make us believe anything would be to speak to our rationality. I felt insulted and I was not the only one. I can just imagine how the security personnel present at the meeting felt or the people over at facilities maintenance. President Salonen did in fact further explain that the claims would have to have real evidence and would be taken seriously, but he did not really make any elusions to the process it would take to fire unionized workers. I would hope that their jobs are not as easily expendable as President Salonen made them out to be and I truly believe that he owes both the students and workers here at the University an apology.