Tag Archives: safety

EVENT
Drugs, Harm, and the Campus

How should we – as a university and as a society – address the use of illicit drugs? In light of recent events, the Allbritton Center is bringing together experts from a variety of fields and perspectives for panel discussions on drug use and policies at Wesleyan and beyond. The hope is to have an open and informative dialogue, and to provide a space for sharing your questions and concerns. All students, faculty, staff, and community members are welcome. Questions for panelists may be submitted at each event or in advance to scapron[at]wesleyan[dot]edu or @wes_engage.

Drug Use @Wes
What are we doing about drugs at Wesleyan and why? Join use for a panel discussion on education, support, and policies.
Panelists: Tanya Purdy (Director of Health Education, WesWELL), Beth Dericco (Higher Education Outreach, Caron Treatment Centers), and Ashley Fine ‘15
Moderator: Mike Shaley, Vice President of Student Affairs
Date: Tuesday, April 7
Time: 4:30 PM
Place: PAC 002

The Physiology of Drugs
What is actually happening inside your body?
Panelists: Mike Robinson (Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience & Behavior), Stefanie Jones (Drug Policy Alliance), Mark Neavyn, MD (Director, Medical Toxicology, Department of Emergency Medicine, Hartford Hospital)
Moderator: Ishita Mukerji, Dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Date: Wednesday, April 15
Time: 8:00 PM
Place: Memorial Chapel

Drug Policy, Regional and National
The policy debate: what is to be done?
Panelists: Ethan Nadelmann (Founder and Executive Director, Drug Policy Alliance), Susan O’Connor (Program Director, Phoenix House), Mike Lawlor (Under Secretary for Criminal Justice Policy and Planning in the State Office of Policy and Management)
Moderator: Rob Rosenthal, Director, Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life
Date: Wednesday, April 28
Time: 8:00 PM
Place: Shanklin 107

FEATURED
“Words Versus Actions”: Billinkoff ’14 Films Documentary about Public Safety Controversies

As a final project for his Digital Filmmaking class, slam poet regular and Wesleying contributor Solomon Billinkoff ’14 has made a brief documentary about Public Safety. The twelve-minute short focuses on a series of events in the fall of 2012 (many of which led to the recent decision not to include racial descriptors in safety alerts). As Billinkoff explains in his voice-over:

I never had a plan for this movie. All I knew was that I wanted to make a documentary about Public Safety. After having gotten approval from the organization, my first instinct was to humanize P-Safe, as it is an institution that is generally maligned by the student body. A wave of on-campus assaults had just occurred within a single week, and I was interested to discover what P-Safe was doing to handle the situation and protect students. But the alerts P-Safe had sent out described the suspects as “African-American” and “male,” and unbeknownst to me at the time, these email alerts were met with a slew of racial hatred on Wesleyan’s Anonymous Confession Board. It was then revealed that a P-Safe officer had allegedly assaulted a black Wesleyan student. A week later, a forum on student diversity and equality was held in Wesleyan’s Beckham Hall.

These conflicts and contradictions form the basis of Billinkoff’s film, which largely speaks for itself. It’s only twelve minutes, so watch it after the jump.

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Attend a Lecture and Get Your Fire Safety Fine Refunded

Got burned by Fire Safety? The crew made their rounds last week, and if you’re reading this far, you probably got slapped with a $50 fine for having incense in your Fauver triple or whatever. Don’t want to pay it? Have an hour to spare? Wesleying just received this pro-tip from an anonymous source:

I’m sure some poor suckers got slapped with that brutal $100 fine from Fire Safety. But one anonymous RA dropped this
gamechanging news that there is a way to get out of paying it! Please investigate this to see if its true, because if so its the best kept secret on campus! “Anyone who does get written up, they won’t tell you this, but you can get a hundred dollars of your fines refunded if you go to an hour long firesafety seminar (they hold them every other week in USDAN during lunch)…”

So I contacted Fire Safety Coordinator Christine Cruz for clarification. Turns out not only is this the truth, it’s also not really a secret—it appears directly on Fire Safety’s website (though only seems to be applicable for a first offense $50 violation). Here’s the full text of the policy:

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FEATURED
Homecoming Weekend: A Time for Violence

“Given the size of our campus and our openness to visitors, each of us must make a personal commitment to promote safety and security for ourselves and others.”

Good thing your usually paranoid WesParents were kept busy this weekend. Otherwise they might have heard through the grapevine about the inordinate number of P-Safe reports students received. Ranging from the awkward to the truly menacing, each report detailed an account of students approached at night by men, and all of them ended in shouting or physical confrontations. The first one, from Friday night (or Saturday morning, depending on how you operate), seems merely socially awkward:

Public Safety would like to inform the community that on Saturday 10/20/12 at 2:44am a female was walking on Church St and was approached by a male subject who put his arm around her and asked her to walk with him. The male removed his arm and tried to start a conversation with the student. Several other students walked by and the female walked away from the male and into the Exley Science Center. The male shouted out to her but did not follow her. The male then left the area and the student later notified Public Safety of the incident. The student was not injured and declined to speak with Middletown Police.

The student described  the suspect as an African-American male, 5″ 6″ tall, medium build in, his late 20’s or early 30’s, short hair, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, dark jeans and carrying a backpack.

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EVENT
Make Your Mark on Middletown, or at least on its Multi-Use Trails

Ever worried about biking or walking from Wesleyan to Middletown’s bustling Main St. or elsewhere around this metropolis that we call home? If so, you might want to show up to this event:

  • Date: Tuesday, February 28th
  • Time: 7:00 p.m.
  • Place: First Church of Christ Congregational, 190 Court St

The Jonah Center for Earth and Art invites the public to a forum on Middletown’s efforts to develop a comprehensive and detailed plan to make our city safer and more conducive for walking and bicycling. The program will be held on Tuesday, February 28, at 7 p.m. in the Memorial Room at First Church of Christ, Congregational, 190 Court Street, in Middletown. 

Fore more info about the forum, click beyond the jump!

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Students Attacked Outside CFA Last Friday

The Argus has more information about last Friday’s Public Safety report: two students, Claire Staples ’09 and Travis Fitzgerald ’09, were assaulted in an unprovoked attack by four people on Friday night, outside the Davison Art Center on High Street.

Following a gathering at her house on Court Street, Staples and Fitzgerald were traveling up Court Street towards a friend’s house when they noticed four youths loitering ahead. The youths began to follow them, at which point Staples and Fitzgerald crossed High Street and headed towards safety at the CFA, where they both have studios. Staples then tried to flag down a passing PSafe patrol car, but it failed to notice her attempts.

…Within seconds, Staples was severely hit multiples times in the face by one assailant. Fitzgerald, after chasing the attackers, sustained minor injuries to the face and back. No weapons were used in the assault, and theft does not seem to have been a motive. Following the attack, Fitzgerald called PSafe, and he and Staples, who was heavily bleeding, were taken to the hospital.

The effects of the assault have outlasted the incident itself. Staples, who bore the brunt of the attack, sustained an orbital blowout fracture below her left eye and received multiples stitches for cuts on her chin. Currently on Percocet to numb the pain, she is unable to attend classes or work on her senior thesis.

“I definitely thought that I was invincible,” Staples said. “Now I feel a little vulnerable. It all happened in like twenty seconds.”

This is pretty unnerving – by all accounts this kind of attack is rare, and Public Safety has stepped up security in the area since Friday. The case is being pursued with the Middletown Police Department, but the fact that it happened is another reminder to watch your back when you’re out late.

The victims are admirably clear-headed about the incident:

The assault is particularly unsettling for Staples since it appears to be unprovoked and unmediated. Additionally, she feels that it was directed towards her not as an individual, but as a Wesleyan student.

“I was attacked because I was a Wes student,” Staples said. “It didn’t matter that it was me. It’s an isolated incident and yet it’s not an isolated incident. It was just a bunch of fucking punk ass kids.”

Staples, who has lived on the periphery of campus both during the summer and academic year, still considers Middletown a safe place to live. Both she and Fitzgerald do not fault the community for what happened or see this assault as an accurate depiction of relations between the University and greater community.

“It certainly hasn’t changed my opinion of Middletown,” Staples said. “I know that it’s not a good representation of Middletown. It’s still a great place to live.”

According to the Argus, Claire is planning to hold an art show of photos chronicling her injuries in March – kudos for making something positive out of this ordeal.

Argus: Two Students Attacked Outside CFA on Friday

Hospitality

I understand that we have our share of sketchy people wandering around campus. The e-mail P-safe sent out about townies coming into dorms and stealing your shit doesn’t help.

But a few days ago, my friend (who I won’t name because ze has no idea I’m writing this) was riding hir bike on Foss Hill and fell, busting hir face open. Stunned and bleeding, ze walked to the nearest dorm–WestCo–and a boy by the door would not let hir into the building because he “didn’t recognize hir.” Ze ended up walking from Foss Hill to the Health Center, where they drove hir to the Middlesex Hospital.

This was in BROAD DAYLIGHT.

Now, I can sort of get not wanting to get blood on your car seats. And I get the paranoia about letting people you don’t know into your building. But if someone’s obviously hurt and bleeding because a chunk of their face was just scraped off, at least offer to call P-safe or help them to the Health Center! If you’re so fucking paranoid that they’re going to steal your hallmate’s ipod, ask to see their student ID or even keep an eye on them down the hall to wherever they’re going. Don’t be a fucking jerk and turn an injured kid away just because you havn’t ventured out of your little mini-Wes bubble of friends. And for christ’s sake, don’t assume that someone that’s just been in an accident is going to have full grasp of the situation; They aren’t going to be at their full getting-admitted-to-Wesleyan capabilities, and theyaren’t going to be thinking about the blue box phones, or even their own cell phones.

Wesleyan Office of Public Safety
Emergency: (860) 685-3333 or x3333
Non-Emergency (860) 685-2345 or x2345