Staff Editorial | College must prioritize student safety in emergencies

In the wake of the school shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University, many students on college campuses nationwide have become more concerned about their safety and security. Thus, when Main House residents attempted to walk through their dorm on the night of Friday, Feb. 22, seeing a hallway covered in blood was cause for alarm.

After the injured student was cared for, the north side of the building’s third floor and central staircase were shut down to student use for several hours. However, in the time between the incident and the effective lockdown, there was enough time for many students to walk through the hallway and wonder, given the amount of spilled blood, if they too were in danger.

Because the Vassar community is relatively small, rumors about the frightening scene spread quickly throughout Main and the rest of campus. Unfortunately, no authority figures—from the administration, Security or House Team—dispelled these rumors until hours into the night.

Security’s first priority, of course, was to attend to the student who was hurt, but it took over an hour for officers to talk to students lingering near the affected hallways and explain that Main residents were not in immediate danger. After emergency responders arrived and aided the student, administration should have sent an e-mail without delay to inform students that there was a situation in the building but that they were not in danger.

Instead of receiving on-site reassurances or e-mailed information immediately following the incident, which began at approximately 10:15 p.m., Main residents were sent an e-mail from House Advisor Akiko Yamaguchi at 1:39 a.m.

The e-mail did not explain the situation further than that “a Main resident was injured earlier this evening on the third floor of the building.” The following Monday, Dean of the College Judy Jackson sent an e-mail to the entire Vassar campus stating that a “student resident of Main is said to have become agitated and apparently shattered a window.”

Unfortunately, poorly timed and ill-informed e-mails have been the rule and not the exception at Vassar in recent history. At least two separate incidents in Fall 2007, one involving the noose found in Jewett House and the other involving the “splash” heard at the Town House lake, prompted e-mails from the administration that left students with more questions than answers. In its all-campus e-mails, the College should provide as much information as possible, and present it with the reader’s likely questions in mind.

Communication between students and administration about incidents involving possible safety threats should be geared toward easing students’ fears via information. Otherwise, rumors are ignited and student safety could be jeopardized.

“Had we not known where or who the blood was coming from, a more immediate message may have been appropriate and would have shifted the priority to a more global concern of campus safety,” said Director of Residential Life Luis Inoa in an e-mailed statement. While the administration was aware of the fact that the incident did not pose a threat to students, Main residents did not have this information and had absolutely no way of knowing whether they were in continued danger.

Certainly, there are justifiable arguments that the situation surrounding the injuries of one student should not be disclosed to the entire campus, because that student retains a right to privacy.

But maintaining a student’s privacy and reassuring that there is not a predator on campus are not mutually exclusive. The student’s privacy would not have been violated if an e-mail had been sent that explained that the incident was over, and that there was not a threat on campus.

When the noose was discovered in Jewett House, there was a mandatory Jewett House meeting and a follow-up forum. In the chaos of an unexpected incident, some delay in informing students about what happened might be reasonable. Nearly a month after the fact, however, an open meeting about the incident is far past due.

During most students’ tenure at Vassar, the residential houses on campus are our homes. It was clear from even a quick glimpse of the Main hallway that at least one person had sustained serious injuries.

As members of a generation that has seen increased violence in schools, students often assume—justifiably, given the list of precedents—that a worst-case scenario has occurred. Such alarmism can only be prevented by speedy information to assure students that it is safe to go to sleep.

—The staff editorial reflects the opinion of at least two-thirds of the 14-member editorial board.