More Safety Measures at Trinity Fortress
Yesterday James Jones, the President of Trinity College, sent a message directed at Trinity students, staff, faculty, and parents, and potentially, to Hartford residents.
While careful to say Trinity does not want to cut itself off from the community, administrators described how the college may add cameras, fencing and police to the periphery, along with potential changes to the landscape:
January 25, 2012
Dear Trinity Students, Faculty, Staff, and Parents,
We write to update you on our efforts to improve campus safety at Trinity. As mentioned in our previous message to the campus community, we want to be deliberate in our efforts to make changes that are effective and lasting. We have visited other campuses in the Bronx, Boston, New Haven, and Bridgeport to examine best practices at other urban institutions. We have met with private security consultants and will, as mentioned in our previous email, host a visiting team of campus safety professionals who will do an external review of our staffing, protocols, training programs, and allocation of resources. We have also heard many constructive ideas from students, staff, and parents. While we want to make sure we factor in all the expert advice we can get, it is increasingly evident that we need to make some critical changes.
Back in December we told you that we would increase the number of officers on patrol and improve lighting. Under the leadership of Director Charles Morris, the Campus Safety staff has organized a tactical patrol of five additional officers during the hours of 8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. who will focus on the periphery of campus in the areas of Summit Street, Crescent Street, and College property on Allen Place. We will be hiring five additional officers to permanently staff this team and rely on overtime until we are able to hire additional officers. We have, working with students from the Campus Climate Council, identified several areas on campus where we are adding new lighting and we have replaced or upgraded 275 lights across campus. We have also put in place an auditing program to ensure prompt repair when a light is not working. These efforts will increase the visibility of our Campus Safety patrols and provide better and more lighting. But we realize these efforts alone are not sufficient to make our community feel as safe as we would like.
We have received a formal proposal from the SGA and have heard from some faculty and staff and numerous parents and students that we need to do more to monitor access to the campus at certain times of the day. We have no intention of withdrawing our welcome to the local community to enjoy the benefits we extend to them, but we need to do more to discourage criminal activity that undermines safety and creates resentment and fear instead of appreciation for the assets of Hartford. At its meeting last week, the Board of Trustees authorized us to explore strategies for how we can do more to manage the routes of access to the campus. We are in the process of selecting a security consulting firm to help us determine the feasibility of such a plan. It would most likely require some additional fencing, landscaping, and cameras in critical areas and could mean providing internal access to some of the parking areas on the periphery of campus that are currently accessed from the city streets to allow for controlled access.
We want to hear from the campus community as we develop our plans. We also want to assure you that we have no intention of separating ourselves from Hartford and diminishing the mutually beneficial relationship we have with our neighborhood and the city. That is a relationship we want to see grow. Our focus remains on providing the highest level of safety and security for all members of our campus community.
We will write again to update you on our planning process as soon as we have the recommendations of the consultant and our visiting team. In the meantime we wish all of you the best for the new semester.
Very truly yours,
James F. Jones, Jr.
President and Trinity College
Professor in the Humanities
Frederick Alford
Dean of Students
None of the added safety measures address the most common types of crimes that occur on college campuses, which involve students violating the rights of other students, nor does it address how students are violating their own safety through binge drinking.
The 2011 Campus Safety Annual Report indicates a large number of disciplinary actions take for drugs and alcohol on campus, but only a small amount of actual arrests for those crimes:
2011 Campus Safety Report
2011 Campus Safety Report
There is no language in the annual report that suggests that any of the reported crimes were committed by individuals not part of the college community.
The weekly safety reports posted on the Trinity College Campus Safety page provide more details about the nature of crimes occurring there.
During one week in November 2011, there were four alcohol incidents, two of which resulted in hospital trips — one to the Children’s Hospital:
From September 25, 2011 - October 2, 2011, there were a number of alcohol incidents that resulted in eight individuals (seven students and one visitor) taken by EMS to Hartford Hospital for observation and treatment. During the week of September 17, 2011 - September 24, 2011, there were four students taken to Hartford Hospital for observation after drinking. In a separate incident that week, a student was actually arrested for DUI because he drove through a fence and almost into the Campus Pizza restaurant.
Another student received disciplinary action for receiving 1/4 pound of marijuana in the mail:
Weekly reports from the Fall 2011 semester reflect other types of crime too — like a student fleeing a cab to avoid paying his fare.
Much of the reported crime involved thefts when individuals left belongings in unlocked rooms or when they gave their room codes to others.
One week, the entire (approximately 1000 copies) campus newspaper was stolen, presumably because a group on campus was unhappy with an article written about them.
In September 2011, a student reported verbal harassment by other students. This harassment involved homophobic language.
The assaults and robberies were described with inconsistency. Some include no description of the assailant, but others are attributed to groups of African American or Hispanic men. No explanation was given for the absence of physical descriptions in most of the reports. Only a handful of reports indicate that the criminal was in fact neither a student nor visitor.
President Jones or Dean Alford have stated “we want to hear from the campus community as we develop our plans,” regarding campus safety measures. President Jones can be contacted through his two assistants by email or phone.
UPDATE (1 Feb 2012): Six days after this piece was published, the Courant ran an editorial “Spike in Crime Poses Dilemma for Trinity” (31 Jan 2012). In addition, a reader alerted me to a discussion happening on Facebook during January about Trinity College campus safety; the discussion includes this remark:
In all sincerity, what reason do Hartford locals have for being on our campus at 8pm or later?
That question deserves an answer. Cinestudio, which is located on the Trinity campus, is a theater independent of the college. This is one reason for “Hartford locals” to be on campus after 8pm. Also, typical of most colleges and universities, Trinity schedules events that are open to the public, such as the annual Chamber Music Series. In addition, showing goodwill for the community it is located within, Trinity College has permitted the use of some of its buildings for NRZ meetings. Those are all widely accepted reasons for locals being on college campuses after dark.
I am an alum, and had a survey a few months back which was very heavy on questions regarding the dangerous neighborhood and security issues. I attribute this attitude to racism. I also worked for Trinity. Will be contacting President Jones to advise him that my annual financial support will end as of now.
Thanks for your comment! We would be interested in hearing how President Jones responds.
We shall see. Reading between the lines, today’s over-involved college parents are demanding “safety.” I do like that you have pulled their own crime statistics to demonstrate that the safety problem is significantly an internal problem. When I was working in the library, students would leave laptop, cell phone, iPod laying on tables unattended, and then demand that we exclude the public if any of these unguarded/unlocked devices were stolen. The campus is very poorly connected to the neighborhood. Clearly the advocates of a closed campus are winning the war, slowly but surely. I blasted back on that survey in the comments section, indicating that Trinity doesn’t do enough to foster meaningful connections to the community and increasing visible security will increase the feeling of the surrounding community that Trinity just views them as a bunch of criminals. My feeling is that Trinity should take the opposite tack, and actually *invite* the community onto it’s campus. I know they do this already to a limited extent, but really reach out in a meaningful way.
Just so’s you know, there is also a new alcohol/social policy in place as of this month. Students are also very much up in arms about that.
Do you know the details of this new policy? Know anything about how it is being enforced?
I’m not sure they’ve released anything to media yet… stay tuned! I just want to assure you that the major effort right now is not on keeping outsiders in, but on working on internal issues.
Just to clarify — the new alcohol/social policy is or is not in effect now?
It is.
I had some Trinity students throw beer cans at me when I riding home from work late one evening after a budget meeting. I emailed prexy Jones and received a nice response from him and the public safety guy, but they didn’t really take any action. Admittedly, my description of the offenders and their vehicle wasn’t great. Hopefully the fence they build keeps them further separated from me. They’re dangerous!
I wonder how Brownell would have handled this situation? I feel it would be a very different response.
As an employee of over 22 years, I object to the title,”Trinity College Fortress.” That reference causes me to wonder if you’ve ever actually been to our campus.
While certainly not perfect, our campus is open to all on a daily basis, and the students, staff and faculty strive to maintain deep roots within the community.
I have been there numerous times including in December when I was invited to speak on a panel. Search through the Real Hartford archives to find other coverage I have given to events on the Trinity campus.
I too have been an employee of the college for a very long time, and I’d say only a small minority of students, staff and faculty could give a damn about “the commmunity,” never mind striving to maintain roots.
There used to be a real office of community relations with a director that reported to the president. Now there is just one person, with no direct line to the president.
Efforts to “engage with Hartford” may have begun years ago with lofty ideals but today they are driven by marketing and hype. The efforts are based on the presumption that Hartford is one nasty, dangerous place, but the college can’t be moved so it has to make the best of a bad situation.
With this attitude, is it any wonder that crimes of resentment by outsiders are increasing? Not to mention, of course, all the internal, student on student crime…
I took the title as a lighthearted jab. It’s the content of this article (sourced directly from Trinity) that bothers me a great deal.
I think Mr. Killian took the opposite approach.
Preemptively, lest Brian Killian or any other knee-jerk apologist suggest otherwise, I have been visiting the Trinity campus for 15+ years and have lived three blocks from the campus for 7+ years. It’s a beautiful campus and a fine place for a film or a stroll. I have met some outstanding Trinity students and employees and attended some great events. I have also seen some students acting like complete drunken jerks in public, and while I don’t let some poorly-behaved kids ruin or define Trinity for me, I do have a problem with the double-standard of how they are treated when they get out of line. If anyone in Frog Hollow was caught with 4 ounces of weed, they would be arrested for sure. When a Trinity student had such an amount, he was treated with privilege that few enjoy. That was a disgustingly weak judgment call on behalf of HPD and Trinity. Anyone who had a part in that decision should be ashamed.
Holy shitsnacks, a student received a QUARTER POUND of weed and wasn’t arrested? That should automatically be possession with intent to sell. That is well beyond personal use. That is an obscene abuse of privilege right there.
Can we install gates at the ends of our streets to prevent Trinity students from buying drugs in our neighborhood?
I am not privy to President Jones’ thinking but consider that next to comparable colleges, Trinity’s endowment is relatively small, which results in the college not being able to offer as much financial aid as other similar colleges. And THAT results in an over-reliance on “full payers” - students from wealthy families who not only don’t need scholarships but might in the future be persuaded to be donors. The vast majority of the trustees were students like this, and it’s this contingent that truly calls the shots. Many among this contingent –the power/money crowd– would like to see Trinity become an armed fortress with “secure access” and armed guards. President Jones and his deans may just be pawns, stuck between a rock and a hard place. Pres. Jones needs a job too… and if he disagrees with this point of view (I don’t know if he does…) he may be powerless to do anything about it. The customer is always, right, no?
I guess that is a question folks can think about. Should education be treated like a business? Is the customer always right? Is it the job of the college president to cater to customers or to position himself as a leader?
[...] has been reported that a sharp increase in crime is the reason for the controversial discussions about possible security measures at Trinity College [...]