The role of Campus Safety is quite self-explanatory: they are committed to keeping a safe and thriving environment for students and faculty throughout all various social, cultural, and academic environments on campus. How does this affect the clubs of Andrews who want to plan on-campus events that may be deemed hazardous? I was able to speak with Solana Campbell (junior, business management), the president of the Southern Asian Student Association (SASA). I was also able to talk with Brandon Alvarez (junior, biochemistry and business administration) who is the president of the Andrews University Latino Association (AULA). During our conversations, I was able to learn more about their experiences with Campus Safety when planning events for their clubs.
SASA recently held an event called Diwali, which is the festival of light. In our conversation, Solana stated, “At first, we wanted to do floating lanterns in correlation with the festival of light. We reached out to Campus Safety, and it sounded like they would be willing to work with us, but they just ended up putting their foot down. They continued to do this when we asked if we could do sparklers or candles or something similar instead. I understand that Campus Safety has a responsibility to keep our campus safe, and I can totally see how these things could pose a fire risk. However, we would have appreciated them being a little more open to discussion and potentially coming up with a solution instead of just vetoing the idea. In the end, we weren’t able to celebrate the holiday as authentically as it should be. This not only doesn’t allow the South Asian ‘community’ on campus to properly celebrate their culture but also doesn’t allow the greater student body to have an authentic experience.”
Brandon Alvarez, the president of AULA, held the Noche Latina night a couple of months ago. The point of Noche Latina was to have a jam-packed, one-night event to celebrate Latino culture the way they do it in Latin America. It was to be an event where culture could be authentically celebrated by those who claim it as their own and cherished by those who are eager to take part.
Brandon stated, “Although we didn’t have much trouble with Campus Safety personally for Noche Latina, the preparation for Noche Latina did carry some difficulties when coordinating with Campus Safety. The original plan for Noche Latina was to have it in front of the Science Complex. The plan was to have poles that supported lights and banners. We had gotten approval from Campus Safety to have it at this location and reserve an area of the lot for the food trucks. However, leading up to the event, there was a massive windstorm that was sweeping across Berrien Springs, posing a risk to the infrastructure of these lights. Suddenly, we had to switch locations (days before the event) and inform Campus Safety that we had done so. Subsequently, we were reprimanded for changing locations, which is a valid response had the weather conditions not been out of the ordinary. Other than that, Campus Safety hasn’t treated us too harshly, but I don’t know whether that’s the case for everybody else.”
Even throughout these situations, it is important not to doubt Campus Safety and their desire to protect Andrews campus twenty-four-seven. These two experiences are simply specific scenarios where the clubs would like to see more understanding and clarity in their interactions with Campus Safety when planning club events. However, being reprimanded for the change of location due to uncontrollable weather shouldn’t be the response a club receives after a necessary change in agenda. It seems as if the clubs would appreciate more empathy and communication from Campus Safety, rather than Campus Safety not being completely part of the event process. While the student clubs respect our Campus Safety and appreciate their work, they would like a change. Campus Safety is being called to work with us to find solutions that stay within the safety guidelines while still listening to the concerns of our clubs.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.