Safety Concerns on Campus

Cognizant of our separation from New London, Conn students often emphasize the “bubble” in which our school rests comfortably. Contrary to our larger, city-centered peers, Connecticut College’s enclosed campus creates a sense of safety.

With recent events, however, the College’s rose-colored glasses have finally been removed. As disclosed in campus-wide emails from Dean Briddell and Stewart Smith, Thomas Lee Walden, a man hired as a contractor for the college, was found peeking underneath stalls in the women’s bathroom in Cro.

Walden, who is listed on the Connecticut Department of Public Safety Sex Offender Registry, was promptly arrested, charged with trespassing, stalking and breach of peace. He was previously arrested in South Carolina in 2005 on charges of voyeurism.

While the College included the above information in an email to the campus, it came in a second email, a day after the original email which claimed that Walden was not at all affiliated with the College.

Dr. Jennifer Manion, director of the LGBTQ Resource Center and professor of history  at the college, sent an email to the student workers of the LGBTQ center that corrected the College’s first message: “While the message said the man has no connection to the College, for us at the LGBTQ Center, he actually had quite a significant connection to the college because these past two weeks he was working outside our entrance to Burdick repairing the steps. I had significant interactions with him over the course of this time and I know that at least some of you have as well.”

Manion, along with other members of the campus community, were upset with the College’s misinformation.

The surreality of this incident is punctuated by students’ recognition of the “bathroom creeper”. Walden, whose picture can be found on the Connecticut Department of Public Safety’s website, worked on construction in Cro, the LGBTQ Center, Burdick and Hale Laboratory — all particularly public places where students were bound to run into him.

Though a “Peeping Tom” may seem somewhat trivial, this small event has sparked conversations about the safety on our campus. Jocelyn Briddell, Dean of Student Life, reminds students that this is not cause for worry.

“I don’t think that [this type of incident] is terribly unusual. I’ve seen it on other college campuses. Peeping Toms have a tendency to gravitate to colleges with lots of women. It happens. It’s highly unlikely that he’ll ever return back to our campus, as he has been declared persona non grata, and Campus Safety knows who he is.”

But with the rise of assaults on college campuses, students still find they have reason to worry. This year’s stalking and shooting of a Wesleyan student, Johanna Justin-Jinich, and the recent events at Yale University have many concerned about the security at Conn.

“I’ve gone to schools in large cities where there’s a security guard at the door of every building,” said freshman Kira Turnbull. “I think that there should be security guards at doors of some buildings, even just Cro. Even though we’re in a small city, that doesn’t mean that there won’t be crime. People should just be more aware of their surroundings, and be on guard.”

Said a sophomore who asked to remain anonymous, “I live in Johnson, and walking back at night alone is kind of scary.  We know that the school enforces various practices for the safety of students, but things like the long, and often dark, walk back to Johnson should not be overlooked.”

Dean Briddell assures us that the school is ready to take on any situation with which they are faced.

“We have an Emergency Response Team, and the Office of Student Life has developed an emergency plan for various incidents as a precaution, so we know what we’re doing. I don’t ever want to get to the point where we have to trust it, but I think we’re well prepared.”

Briddell said she doesn’t see any similarities between Conn and the incidents at Yale and Wesleyan.

“The situation that happened at Yale is more of a ‘workplace violence’,” she said.  “I don’t think the incidents are comparable, and I don’t want people’s fears to be unnecessarily heightened .  You’ll hear students talking about the difference between college and the real world, but college is the real world — things that happen out in any community can happen here.  I want people to be careful, to make sure they’re always safe, to be conscious of their surroundings, and to pay attention to strangers on campus.  Especially if their behavior happens to be odd or out of place.”

Regardless of what the college does to ensure our safety, these practices are carried out by campus security, not police.  The safety of Connecticut College is contingent upon the practices put forth by both the students and the staff, and the success of such is dependent on both parties working together.