On Monday April 27, Community Council continued discussing security cameras, a controversial topic that was the subject of some of the graffiti that appeared on Ross dining hall, Atwater dining hall and BiHall that morning. Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of the College and Community Council Co-Chair Katy Smith Abbott said that new issues the council may have not yet considered came up in the recent open forum on security cameras on campus.
“(The meeting) showed the limited extent that we have been examining the impact on individuals that already have a particularly strong opinion on security cameras,” said Abbott.
“Issues of race and gender” were presented in the meeting according to Abbott.
“What level does that leave us open to targeting members of the community that are not members of the majority… what are we opening ourselves up to if human beings are reviewing this tape and they are looking for something to go off on…like suspicious behavior?” she asked.
Telecom Manager and Technology Support Specialist Solon Coburn reiterated that if a proposal to request security cameras on campus passed the council, there would be strict guidelines similar to those of peer institutions, that would indicate who could view them and in what circumstances.
It is “the very experience of being viewed or having a camera on you when already your very identity on campus is always on camera…always scrutinized” that made some students at the forum voice against security cameras, said Abbott.
“What it means for students particularly every time they go into a dining hall to be having those questions…stops me in my tracks a little bit,” she said.
Landscape Horticulturist Tim Parsons worried that if the College does not use the cameras to keep student’s personal items safe in light of the increased number of thefts this year that losing an item such as a laptop “for some students who go to school here it would be a very big financial hit.”
Durga Jayaraman ’16 talked to three people that live in her social house that have had their personal belongings stolen on campus. The students told her they would have been against the idea of security cameras but that being the victims of theft changed their view.
Blake Shapskinsky ’15 motioned for the council to vote on a proposal to have the security cameras in the Ross and Proctor dining halls only, monitoring where students place their backpacks outside of the dining area. The proposal also asked for guiding principles and that the cameras be only reviewed on case by case bases. The motion failed, with six for, nine against and two abstaining.
The council is going to continue discussing the issue and a proposal to strongly encourage students to bring their personal items into the dining halls with them.
Several students including President of the Inter-House Council (IHC) Rod Abhari ’15, President of Tavern Eli Jones ’16, and Vice President of Tavern and of the IHC Kevin Conroy, as well as Associate Dean of the College and Director of Public Safety Lisa Burchard attended the meeting to discuss a proposal pertaining to social house walk-throughs by Public Safety officers.
Abhari presented a proposal requesting that Public Safety officers enter house spaces under three conditions: if the house is on probation, if Public Safety receives a disturbance call, or if an officer sees a disturbance while on their normal patrol.
The council heard about this issue earlier in the year. Students again voiced their concern over walk-throughs that are occurring in their houses on weekdays almost daily without any cause, in their opinions. Students were also concerned why their seemed to be a lack of inequity pertaining to walk-throughs, when the Atwater suites and other non- ridgeline houses seem to not have officers walking through their living spaces as often. The proposal was passed with nine for, five against and four abstaining.
