M
ETHODIST
C
OLLEGE
Pride
Fayetteville, NC
Vol. XXXVI, No. 4
Monday, November 16, 1998
Locked in Science Building—
“It Was a Rotten Birthday!”
A News Commentary
By Cindy Bridges Assistant Editor and
Bethany Helton Entertainment Editor
Have you ever been forced to confront
one of your fears? Well, Lutte Erwin, an
energetic sixty-something art major at
Methodist College recently had to face her
fear of the dark. On October 9th, Lutte
found herself locked in the Science Build
ing at night!!! Her first experience in the
photography darkroom turned out to be a
disaster. She entered the darkroom at 3 p.m.
to develop film for a class she was taking.
Engaged in her work and unaware of the
time that had elapsed, Lutte emerged from
the darkroom to discover that the building
was deserted, dimly lit and LOCKED. She
did not know that campus Police and Pub
lic Safety routinely locked the building
around 7 p.m. every evening. Her fear in
tensified as she tried to open door after door
meeting the same result - there was NO way
out of this building! Lutte walked up the
dark staircase in search of a phone. Her
plan at this point was to call 911. The dis
patcher contacted Methodist College Po
lice and Public Safety and officers immedi
ately responded to the call. A security
guard unlocked the door for Lutte and
made sure that she was all right. Laughing
about the situation with the security guard,
Lutte displayed immense strength of char
acter. Not everyone could confront one of
their biggest fears with such aplomb like
this unassuming, charming lady.
Lutte shared some of her thoughts on
the ordeal with us. “It was scary. I thought
1 might have to spend the night there on
the couch. I would rather sleep under the
couch. You have to be cautious. I’m just
glad I didn’t have a heart attack. It was an
experience I would never want to repeat.”
Lutte vehemently emphasized that she
blamed no one for this incident. It was an
unfortunate incident that unfortunately co
incided with her birthday.
When researching the incident, we dis
covered that a similar incident occurred a
couple of years ago—same building, same
darkroom. Why did it happen again and
why weren't appropriate measures taken to
ensure the safety of the students? Two safe
guards which should have been in place to
prevent this situation from reoccurring were
missing. The red light bulb outside the dark
room that would normally alert security that
the room was in use is apparently a very
popular commodity! These light bulbs are
routinely pilfered. Tom Daughtry, Assistant
Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds
has stated that a fixture will now be installed
to cage the bulb which should prevent it
from disappearing. The absence of panic
bars on the doors in some of the buildings
at Methodist is a necessary safeguard that
must not be ignored. According to Dave
Reece, Director of Police and Public Safety,
a requisition has been submitted to install
panic bars in the lower levels of the Sci
ence Building and Trustees’ Building. Our
question: Why aren’t the top floors under
consideration as well? Safety consider
ations should be addressed comprehen
sively, not piece by piece to meet minimal
requirements.
In This Issue
Crush on Professor? Page 5
Phish Hooks, Page 7
Sports , Page 9-11
What’s Up With That? Page 12
No exit.
Campus Security Legisiation
Signed into Law
WASHINGTON (U-Wire)—On Oct. 7.
President Clinton signed into law a higher
education bill containing extensive campus
security related provisions. The new law
will expand disclosure of campus crime sta
tistics and require schools to keep a public
police log. Also, schools will no longer be
able to hide violent criminal behavior in
secret campus courts. Other provisions will
suspend aid to students convicted of drug
crimes, and create programs to address
binge drinking and violence against women
on campus.
The requirements, part of a five year
reauthorization of federal higher education
laws, will apply to all schools, both public
and private, that participate in federal stu
dent aid programs.
These reforms come after years of
charges that colleges were exploiting loop
holes in reporting laws to underreport cam
pus crimes and protect their images. The
members of Security On Campus, Inc.
(http://www.soconline.org~). a national non
profit watchdog organization, joined with
other victims’ rights groups, media organi
zations led by the Society of Professional
Journalists (http://spi.org'). and law enforce
ment groups to demand that Congress make
schools be honest and open about their cam
pus crime.
“These changes will significantly im
prove campus safety across the country,”
said S. Daniel Carter the Vice President of
SOC. “Students have been deliberately left
in the dark and couldn’t make informed
decisions about how to avoid and prevent
campus crime.”
“Also left in the dark are the Boards of
Trustees and certain administrators. This
public information available to trustees,
alumni, faculty, and parents will force ad
ministrators to provide adequate assets to
reduce all types of crime, especially student-
on-student crime,” added Carter.
The amendments mark the first major
revisions of a repwrting law enacted in 1990
to address increasing violence on college
campuses. Howard and Connie Clery,
SOC’s cofounders, led the effort to pass
that law after their daughter Jeanne was
murdered at Lehigh University in 1986. The
new law is named in memory of Jeanne
Clery.
Cormie Clery said the new law is “a liv
ing memorial to our beautiful daughter and
the thousands of other victims of campus
crime. This will save many lives.”
Nearly 50,000 crimes are reported on
college campuses annually according to the
understated U.S. Department of Education
statistics.