R ecent incidents at the Frank Porter Graham Student Union have brought into question not only the building’s general security, but also the placement of unreasonable expectations and responsibilities on the student staff during potentially dangerous situations.
The day that an out-of-line Pit Preacher protestor was waving a sex toy and acting erratically, two of the female student employees at the Union were expected to guard the man until officials from the Department of Public Safety arrived after another student employee brought him to their information desk .
DPS officials have recently said that a law enforcement officer patrols the Pit and is around “every minute or two.” However, if that were the case not only would one of these officers been able to handle this erratic protestor, but that officer would also have noticed the man’s behavior in the Pit and acted accordingly in due time. Instead, an onlooking student reported the man to the Union information desk.
Plain and simple, an unarmed student with no real training in law enforcement or security measures should not be expected to guard someone who is causing a disruption. What if the protestor had turned violent? Would it be OK for students to bear the brunt of calming him down, or worse, being hurt in the process?
And that was just one example of a situation in the Union. The student staff has had to contact DPS multiple times throughout the year for other irregular activities. These have occurred on both weekdays and weekends.
When an armed man started an altercation in the Union on a Sunday a few weeks ago, a student employee at Alpine Bagel had to respond and call 911, saying in an interview at the time, “The issue with Sundays is that there aren’t really any adults working around the Union,” meaning no full-time professional staff.
That employee said it took 20 minutes for an officer to arrive at the Union, despite Union officials saying officers arrived within minutes .
The Union is one of the most crowded daytime hangouts on campus, and it is unacceptable that there is not a full-time security guard stationed in the Union during the daytime. Only the Wendy’s has a security guard from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m .
Director Crystal King has said that the Student Union is getting ready to roll out some security improvements in light of recent incidents, putting an emphasis on better training for its student staff, refining evacuation procedures and making emergency kits more accessible to these student employees .
