Janice Tibbetts by CanWest News Service Monday, September 10, 2007
There is no place for armed police patrols on university and college campuses to fortify them against vicious assaults and shooting sprees, say student leaders and campus security staff.
Despite recent sex assaults at two Ontario universities, the Canadian Federation of Students, the York Student Federation and an organization of campus security heads said Monday that calling in police for routine patrols with guns at their sides would threaten the campus atmosphere of freedom and openness.
"I think there is a very fine line to walk here," said Amanda Aziz, chairwoman of the Canadian Federation of Students.
"There have to be security measures on campus, but at the same time they are public spaces and I don't know how comfortable students would feel having police walking around."
Roderick Curran, president of the Ontario Association of College and University Security Administrators, said that universities must guard against turning campuses into "armed camps" by seeking permanent armed police patrols.
"This is an institution of learning and we don't want to do anything that is going to hurt the atmosphere here for the students," said Curran, who heads security at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont.
Fear over campus safety has heightened recently following the sexual assaults early last Friday on two 19-year-old women who were sleeping in their unlocked residence rooms at York University in Toronto. Police were unable to say how the two male suspects entered the dorm, which can only be accessed with a pass card.
Those attacks came less than two weeks after a student at Carleton University in Ottawa was beaten, tied up and raped in a science lab.
Campus security is comprised at some universities of peace officers, who are unarmed but have the power to arrest.
At most universities, however, the job is done by security guards, who can patrol and monitor, but lack authority to make arrests.
"It's really a mixed bag," said Curran. Some campuses, he said, do not even have video surveillance "and they're scrambling right now to get the funds to do that."
Although local police forces are often called to campus when crimes occurs, they do not routinely patrol the areas, although they may do so occasionally as part of their beats.
York student Gilary Massa said she although she has been looking over her shoulder in recent days, she rejects the idea of a permanent police presence on campus.
"I am of the opinion that there is no room for armed security on campus," said Massa, a representative of the York Student Federation. "I feel the campus is fairly safe on a day-to-day basis."
In the United States, there have been periodic calls to arm campus police with guns, although a survey conducted earlier this year for CanWest News Service showed that a solid majority of Canadians -- 64% -- opposed the prospect.
Instead, Canadian universities and colleges are responding to the threat of violent crime on campus with heightened security measures that include, among other things, text-messaging alerts, security towers, and outdoor loudspeaker systems.
"Universities and colleges realize they have to make their communities more safe for students and faculty," said Curran.
The University of Calgary, for instance, is the first Canadian university to implement a new text-messaging system that can alert students who sign up for the service of a campus danger via cellphone.
The system was sparked by the breakdown in communication last April that failed to alert students to a mass murderer on campus at Virginia Tech, said campus security manager Lanny Fritz.
"It was born out of lessons learned from Virginia Tech," said Fritz.
A similar system at Brandon University in Manitoba alerts students of emergencies via text messages transmitted through 26 televisions around the campus.
Wilfrid Laurier University is considering installing siren towers to blast out alarms across campus, said Curran, and other institutions are planning outdoor loudspeaker systems sprinkled throughout their campus that broadcast alerts.
While there are no national statistics in Canada, figures in the United States do not show that campus crime is increasing. In some areas, it has even declined in recent years. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics also reports the vast majority of sexual assault victims on campuses know their perpetrators.
Aziz agrees, saying that despite the apparently random rapes at Carleton and York universities, date rape on campus is a top safety concern for the Canadian Federation of Students.
She says that education and awareness among students is a key method to prevent crime on campuses.
"Students do generally feel like their is a difference between campus and any other public spaces," said Aziz.
York student leaders reject police patrols on campus
