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ELON, NORTH CAROLINA 1 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011 | VOLUME 37, EDITION 29
www.elonpendulum.com
AL DRAGOI Photographer
Officer Darrell Bliesner has been a police officer with Elon Campus Safety and Police since August 2007. The North Carolina Supreme Court recently ruled
that police officers at religious-affiliated schools such as Elon are required to uphold state law, overturning a previous ruling by the N.C. Court of Appeals.
State Supreme Court upholds Campus Police Act
Private university officers maintain right to enforce state law
Hannah DelaCourt
Senior Reporter
The North Carolina Supreme Court
recently ruled in favor of the Campus
Police Act, upholding the right of
police officers at religious-affiliated
universities to enforce state law. Elon
University is one of a dozen private
colleges and universities with historic
religious affiliations that has a campus
police force.
The decision earlier this month
comes after a previous ruling by the
NC. Court of Appeals that stated police
officers could arrest people at such
universities who violated the freedom
of religious establishment clause of the
First Amendment.
The case that spurned this appeal
involved the arrest of Julie Yencer who
obtained a DWl charge at Davidson
College in Mecklenburg County.
Her appeal was mirrored after a
similar incident that occurred in 1994
at Campbell University. An arrest was
made near campus for a person driving
while intoxicated.
The client’s attorney sued the
university, stating that because
Campbell was then a strong religious
institution, and by operating a state-
approved police force, it violated the
establishment clause of the Constitution
that separates church and state.
When State v. Yencer made it to the
Supreme Court, the Court disagreed
with the Appeals ruling, noting the
primary purpose of a university is
education.
But Chuck Cantos, director of
Campus Safety and Police, said even
though this is great news for all the
schools in North Carolina, it doesn’t
impact Elon.
“We had two cases which went
through the judicial process, and the
judge ruled in favor of the university in
both cases," he said. “In order to be a
religious institution, you have to have
had a certain number of criteria and we
didn’t meet that criteria.”
See POLICE I PAGE 3
Definition of harassment expanded in diversity plan
Hannah DelaCourt
Senior Reporter
The standard response to racial
harrassment at Elon University has
been re-worked as part of a strategic
diversity plan to be implemented at
the beginning of the spring semester.
The plan also includes evaluation of
diversity on campus and training for
faculty and staff.
The decade-long plan falls under the
leadership of Brooke Barnett, faculty
administrative fellow for diversity and
global engagement. Smith Jackson,
vice president and dean of Student
Life, and the newly-formed Bias and
Discrimination Response Council.
“First of all, we think that one of the
most important things that we all do is
that the faculty and staff all participate
in more training and professional
development so that we can try to create
the most inclusive campus environment
possible,” said President Leo Lambert.
And that when events happen we are
more ready to handle them.”
Barnett said she has always studied
these subjects, but recent incidents
involving racial slurs accelerated the
progress in this area.
“This is a difficult process," she
said. “We are
trying to create
something
quickly but in
the right way,
but we have to go
through policy
changes."
The first
training session
for staff, attended
by Lambert,
took place the
Tuesday after
Thanksgiving.
As another part
“We want to try and create
an environment at Elon that
is very inclusive where every
student feels safe, respected,
included and supported.”
-Leo Lambert
elon UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT
of training, two
experts from the University of San Diego
will be on campus Dec. 8 to discuss
the academic part, such as course
construction and the assessment part
of diversity.
Carole Huston, associate dean
of
FOR THE LATEST INFOR
the College of Arts and Sciences at the
University of San Diego, is an expert on
student learning outcome assessment,
and Carlton Floyd is the associate
provost and co-director of the center
for inclusion and
diversity at San
Diego.
“We will
meet with our
committee
looking at the
diversity program
and talk to ResLife
to see how we can
infuse diversity
into that," Jackson
said.
Training will
be offered to
senior staff and the staff that are on
the front line, meaning those that
work directly with students. Jackson
said they are bringing in a company
that will do training through the Anti-
See DIVERSITY I PAGE 4
As Tap House
thrives, security
issues increase
Grace Elkus
Senior Reporter
Elon University students cram into
College Street Tap House, a popular bar
just off Elon’s campus, several nights a
week. While the bar is known to many
for its affordable drinks and large stage,
underage students know it as the bar
where they can consume alcohol without
getting caught.
“It is easy to purchase drinks — ask
an older person to buy you one, go into
the bathroom and drink it," sophomore
Ali Garcia said. “Or just cover the Xs on
your hand. There are too many people for
bouncers to notice it. And I never notice
any police.”
Garcia’s observation Is likely because
of the confusion over who monitors
the bar. Elon town police and Campus
Safety and Police point to each other
as the department that monitors Tap
House. Chris Russell, the owner of Tap
House, claims his employees act as his
security team and said he is not required
to hire off duty law enforcement unless
a university event takes place at the bar
or a Greek organization wants to rent the
space, which occurs about once a week.
In these situations, the organization is
responsible for hiring one off-duty officer
per 100 guests, who is usually from the
Elon town police department, according
to Shana Plasters, director of Greek Life.
"Their role there would not be the
enforcement of underage drinking
policies,” Plasters said. “They are there
at the hire of the organization, and often
don't even go inside the establishment.
Their role is more of a responder if there
were to be an emergency situation."
Gerald Whittington, senior vice
president for business, finance and
technology, has a different understanding
than Russell about the monitoring
situation and the extent to which the town
police are involved.
“The Tap House is, generally,
monitored by the town police,” he said.
“If there was an occasion for them to
call upon the university police for some
reason, I am sure they would. Clearly, any
property where alcohol is sold has risk
management issues that the lessee of the
property is required to address and follow
applicable laws.”
Russell leases the building from the
University, which pays the property tax
of the bar. He describes his relationship
with the institution as a traditional
landowner-lessee situation, which to him
means no involvement from the landlord.
But Whittington said he considers Elon to
be somewhat involved.
A minor issue would have little to no
response from the university, whereas
a major one would have a significant
response. But the biggest incident that
has occurred was a girl who scraped her
foot one night because she was wearing
sandals, according to Russell.
Although Russell is not required to
have a police department monitor the bar,
the lack of extra security has not gone
unnoticed by students, many of whom
consider Tap House to be an exception to
Elon’s alcohol policy.
“Elon’s strict alcohol policy is only
strict if you get caught," Garcia said. “I
honestly think it’s too strict because on
See TAP HOUSE I PAGE 3
T ELO
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