Though a police force is now present on campus for 40 hours a week, the administration still urges students to be careful when dealing with strangers, especially at night / Triangle photo by Daniel Jackson

Tim Baldi
Senior Reporter

With the completion of the new entrance, Landes Way, Bryan’s campus is open to receive more traffic from visitors. The increased access to campus, however, may come with more safety concerns.

On Friday, Sept. 2, other students called police after being flashed by an obese clownette. The students reported that as they were driving around midnight, a van pulled alongside their vehicle, opened one of their doors and a woman who flashed her exposed breasts at the students.

Sept. 11 around 11 p.m., a commuter student called police when a campus visitor slapped her openhanded after a verbal argument, according to a police report filed by reporting officer, Sergeant Josh Jordan.

According to Tim Hostetler, vice president for operations, the 25-year-old suspect is no longer allowed on campus.

According to the police report, the 19-year-old victim later contacted police and will be pursuing a “criminal summons/warrant” against the suspect.

On Oct. 6, three officers and an ambulance responded to a complaint of a drunken man in the Rudd parking lot. When police arrived they found the man passed out on the ground where he had recently vomited, according to Sergeant Rocky Hill in an interview with Daniel Jackson.

The man was arrested for public intoxication for his own safety, said Hill. However, police did find an unloaded hunting rifle in the trunk of the man’s vehicle.

Hostetler said students should stay vigilant and not take safety for granted.

According to Hostetler, Bryan does not have an official security force. The role of night watch is to notify police of threats on campus while a security team would handle the situation directly.

However, because of increased traffic on campus and potential for trespassers, said Hostetler, Dayton provides an on-campus police officer for 40 hours every week.

“Our goal is not to have arrests, but inspire good behavior,” said Hostetler. He added that night watch and the campus police officer exist primarily for campus safety rather than curfew or behavioral enforcement for students.

As added precautions, Hostetler says students should stay in pairs, be in lighted areas and avoid propping doors open.

Hostetler said that students sometimes report suspicious vehicles around campus in order to be vigilant. Because there is an increase in traffic, some local residents drive around campus just to see what the campus is like, he said, but if a visitor’s intentions are unclear, the campus police officer or night watch should be notified to investigate.

“Don’t be afraid to be afraid,” said Hostetler.

Photo courtesy of Maddie Doucet.

Associate Professor of Communications Randy Hollingsworth proposed an idea to his small group communication class: Find a way that you can improve the Bryan College campus and attempt to make the needed changes over the course of the semester.

The students formulated ideas such as improving the study abroad program’s public relations, the music department and the Triangle’s website.

One of the small groups in the class—senior Caleb Haynes, junior Johnny Cannon, sophomore Matt Green and freshman John Youngblood—decided to address the improvement of the campus security system.

“We want to evaluate the current security and emergency system that’s in place and identify any key problem areas, which we do feel exist just from hearsay and personal experience,” Green said.

Green suggested that if Bryan had additional cameras on the doors outside of the dorm, then it would make it easier for law enforcement to pull the security tapes and to question the correct people.

“Nothing that invades someone privacy—we don’t want to put the cameras in the dorms,” Green said. “But no one wants their stuff stolen.”

Crime on Bryan campus

Freshman Drew Thompson said that he was not aware that Bryan had any security; his iPod Touch was stolen on Oct. 10. He described how Alexander Haynes, a young man from Colorado who was in Dayton under the pretense of selling magazine subscriptions, was with a group of people who were walking into dorms on campus.

“If we had an actual security officer, he could’ve stopped this group from marching around campus and into the dorms,” Thompson said.

Sophomores Clayton Schmidt and Josh Ragland spotted Haynes in Woodlee-Ewing dorm. According to Schmidt, they did not see the actual theft but noticed him in the dorm and told the police.

Haynes was apprehended later that day when a police officer pulled him over because the tail light on his vehicle was out. Schmidt said that the officer saw the headphones from the iPod Touch hanging out of Haynes’ shirt front. None of the others in the group were charged.

Schmidt, Ragland and Thompson were called to testify against Haynes Jan. 21. Schmidt said that Haynes had been in jail for about three months leading up to the trial but had been bailed out on Christmas Day by his mother.

After they testified, the judge banned Haynes from the state of Tennessee for at least four years.

“The judge told Haynes if he came back, then they would prosecute him,” Schmidt said.

Lack of security factors into student’s decision to live on campus

Senior Caleb Haynes considered living on campus, but security was one of the factors that helped him decide to commute. He also has several friends that have had personal items stolen, including a unicycle.

“Security here is pretty scarce,” Haynes said. “And security doors in dorms are easy to trip with coat hangers and other objects.”

Students formulate a plan to evaluate the security system on campus

The first step the group will take is to evaluate the current security system and determine if there is an actual problem, according to Haynes.

Green said that they plan to interview Vice President for Operations Tim Hostetler, Dean of Students Bruce Morgan and Vice President for Student Life Dr. Peter Held to obtain an idea of what measures are being taken to protect students.

In the next couple of weeks, the group will send out a survey to students to see if they feel that security needs to be addressed. They hope to obtain around 100 responses from the students.

“We aren’t trying to make people feel unsafe, but everything can always be improved at some point,” Haynes said.

The group plans to look at local and intra-school issues, according to Haynes, but also crime statistics in the local community.

Thompson said that improved security on campus would make students feel safer.

The group is presently in the beginning stages of the project. By the end of the semester, they hope to have the current security system evaluated and to have detected any flaws that need improvement. Their goal is to have a security system on campus that is appropriate to the level needed at Bryan.