UC General Meeting 10/13/08

UC General Meeting
October 13, 2008
Location: SOCH P02

I. Opening Remarks (Matt Sundquist)
a. hopes to be out by eight because he has a soccer game
b. guests to talk about the recent crime incidents along the quad route
II. Bud Reilly, Chief of HUPD
a. chief of police at university, 13 years at HUPD
b. reassure people about the incidents
c. used to have HQ near the route from the Yard to the Quad, but since renovation of new building they’re on the other side of campus
d. heart of matter: view among student journalists that (*criticism of the Voice*) there is a huge crime wave on campus. Total misquote on the part of the Voice, attributing an over-the-top comment on the incidents to Bud Reilly, which had never occurred. pleads for people to get the “right information” and not information written “unknowingly and inaccurately”.
e. “So-called ‘crime wave’” was the result of a number of safety advisories. It’s our duty, according to the law, to tell people what happened so that people can be vigilant so that they are mindful of surroundings—without tipping them over to the point of paralyzing fear.
f. Three burglaries, man arrested and charged.
g. 2 assaults, Cambridge police arrested and charged the dude.
h. Student attacked while blasting music on earphones. No description of attacker, no information.
i. Concrete attempt: try to increase police visibilityàCambridge Police Department will put more bike officers on the Quad-Yard route.
j. Each area of campus has a team of police officers, so get to know them!
k. Ask students: Be mindful of their surroundings to minimize the dangers. We don’t blame the victims and we do work to find the culprits, but in many cases incidents are avoidable. HUPD will try to do what it can to create a safer, more well-lit, blue phone-filled routes, but students need to be more aware and take precautions.
l. Responsiveness: Just because you’re going to call us doesn’t mean we’re going to drag people off in handcuffs, so there’s no need to fear overreaching on the part of officers. We’ll be very responsive to student calls, and we have a good track record on it.
m. Harvard students are easily targetable, because people have preconceptions of them as rich and overindulged (however unfair that characterization might be). They are targets, but students can help HUPD by being more mindful.
n. Because of the prevalence of cell phones, most 911 calls from student go to a nonlocal police department. They should put in 617-495-1212 into their speed dials.
III. Dean Ellison, Associate Dean of the College
a. among other things, in charge of emergency response, community safety
b. chair of the safety committeee
c. Describes lots of programs and information sources that students can use to educate themselves or prevent being victimized; many are student-initiated: shuttles, safety phone numbers, lighting, blue phones.
d. Students can take action through the Safety Committee
e. there’s a website for the safety committee
f. email address: hcsafety@fas.harvard.edu
i. monitored by Dean Ellison, forwarded to committee or commented directly
ii. little anecdote on how he’s responded in the past to emails
iii. he wants the email in the Crimson someday so that students can see it (good luck)
g. Message Me system in the event that there’s a crisis on campus, to inform students about what happened, where to go, what to do.
i. We don’t want to overuse it or spam students.
h. Bottom line: we want to hear from you or your peers, and there are venues for you to communicate concerns.
i. “My email address is adboard@fas.harvard.edu.” Hilarity ensues.
IV. Steve Catalano
a. 95% of crime that happens is property crime
b. Since 2000, crime on campus has decreased 33 percent
c. Since January 2007, crime has gone down
d. There is no solace to people who have been victims, but overall the risk is down
e. Most risk is in the dorms with your property. Unattended property inevitably increases your risk of losing property. Propping open your room doors increases risk of theft.
f. Dissenting view: 75% of violent crime in the community have occurred against males by masked assailants—because males tend to walk without regard to safety believing they can defend themselves
g. There is a booklet on what websites that has information on all kinds of safety concerns—mandated by the Dept. of Education, but HUPD goes above and beyond what is madnated
i. hupd.harvard.eduà “Playing it Safe”
h. We want to see more people take the shuttle and use the escort bus because there’s safety in numbers. No usual problems with delay, because request numbers are so small.
i. On website, a section called “If you see something, say something” a program originally designed in NYC against possible terrorism. It’s been carried over to fight crime. DO NOT INTERVENE. JUST CALL HUPD in the event of an incident.
V. Questions
a. Christian Starling: The only thing I got about safety was a talk about safety from my freshmen proctor. Is there anything that we could do to change that?
i. Bud: You must not have gone to the mandatory freshmen meetings. (says he’s kidding, but…?) We have people who set up programs in houses, work with House masters to set up programs to educate students and make contact. Plus, mandatory freshmen safety meetings; there was some pushback from the freshmen proctors about taking up student time. Bud wants a pushback against the pushback.
b. Spectator: questions the emphasis on self-sufficiency, because some Harvard students aren’t streetsmart. What can we do about stationing an officer on the Quad-Yard route?
i. Bud: We have one now.
c. Student spectator: Increase blue lights along the Quad-Yard route?
i. Bud: there are blue lights, but they have to be on Harvard buildings. They can’t be on private property.
ii. Some of the students who come on camps have absolutely no concern for their safety (women: 2/3 are concerned), and that needs to change.
iii. The Quad has three officers on patrol.
d. George: more streetlights on the Cambridge Commons? and along Garden St?
i. Bud: we can’t do that, that’s the city’s responsibility
ii. Ellison: historical commission makes it difficult make any changes, though there have been marginal success (a blue light in the Cambridge Commons). HUPD can’t patrol Cambridge Commons or Garden St. because they have no legal jurisdiction there.
e. Jack: are there any plans to have HUPD officers patrol areas in transit even though they lack technical jurisdiction for deterrence purposes? we appreciate HUPD! yay!
i. We have bike officers who do precisely that, and we have done that to increase visibility.
f. UC Rep whose name I don’t remember: I’m concerned about profiling. What steps are we taking to make the process more “well-rounded”?
i. Bud: Who looks like a Harvard student? That’s not the basis of how we interview people. We try to get as much information from the call as possible, and talk to everyone. A part of the reason HUPD is broken up into teams, so that the officers can recognize people in the community better. We try to recognize suspicious behavior, not suspicious-looking people. Most of the calls that HUPD has received have not been based on race, but about actions. Most of the perps have not been minorities but have been white males, so profiling would not be effective. We had victims who would give bad descriptions, but would identify characteristics of someone’s race that could be applied to anyone of that raceàwe don’t use those kinds of descriptions, because they would turn into Wanted posters that make innocent people feel fearful that they could be accused of perpetrating a crime. This has been a change in policy since the 70s, a “change in culture”
g. Student spectator: How do we avoid being unwelcoming?
i. Bud: We don’t want to send out an unwelcoming message to people.
ii. Steve: the default position is to call us, even if we have no jurisdiction.
h. Christian Starling: The campus looks very different, and is composed very differently from past campuses. There are a lot of people who aren’t from urban areas, and who don’t understand individual safety as much. Is there anyway to introduce students to our neighborhood in Cambridge, so they can be more aware?
i. Bud: good idea
ii. Ellison: It’s hard to do. It’s difficult to familiarize students with these because it could be leaked to the press and there could be public consequences to such a policy. This is a job of the proctors and tutors: educate students about their community and prepare them for being safe.
iii. Ellison: Be on the Safety Committee!!!
iv. Bud: Two free safety programs on campusà one for women, shorter for men. These programs are helped by older mentors who can help without stigmatizing.
v. Bud: attention span is a problem. We don’t want to spam students with lots of safety information. We get responses from some students accusing us of spamming even when we send out community advisories.
vi. Steve: a one page email for students pending.
i. Matt: thanks for coming dudes!
VI. Rules Elections
a. Matt: we’re going to take volunteers for rules, we need 7 people, meets on an ad hoc basis
b. unless everyone objects, we can pass the people by acclamation
i. Mohindra, Eric M., Seth Peter, Alyssa, Matt Garcia, Kia, Christian, Abby, Doug, Tamar, Daniel, Bill, Eric H., Papa, Amanda, Sonia, Zags
ii. no objections
iii. passed by acclamation
VII. Committee Annoucements
a. Andrea: 272 grant requests for this week
i. up front grants which makes it only 171 requests
ii. she’ll be having office hours and grant interviews in lamont café if people feel nervous
b. Tamar
i. SAC did a great job interviewing people for the student-faculty committees
VIII. Email system trial from a webmail server that doesn’t allow mail forwarding. Does anyone want to do a trial?
a. resounding boos from the Council
b. trial exclusively for UC
c. a few people (with questionable judgment) volunteered
IX. Parliamentarian appointments
a. massive distraction from the crowd
X. Tony and the budget
a. Info passed out
b. Tony: please take a look at budget, make questions—or we can just pass it this week? which would you prefer?
c. Matt: these are projected figures, so they’re not final.
d. Tony: in that case, take a look at the flyer, send me questions.
XI. End meeting