Letter to the Editor | The President has not Followed the Board's Request
From Josué Coy Dick
Last fall, the chair of the BC Board of Directors responded on behalf of the Board to those who’d written to him about campus police patrols. He wrote, “there might be alternative ways [besides police patrols] to accomplish the goal of a more secure campus environment. We agree! But to develop those ways in a meaningful fashion takes time and engagement.”
Students have advocated for alternatives throughout the year, including SGA Bill 92-029. Unfortunately, contrary to the Board's avowed support for putting “time and engagement” towards finding alternatives to patrols, the Administration ignored the students’ and the Board’s entreaties and instead formalized patrols via a Memorandum of Understanding with the North Newton Police Department that states: campus “patrols will be carried out.”
The MOU does not: (a) address what the Board understands can feel like an “intrusion into the living spaces of Bethel students,” (b) outline a path towards alternatives, (c) include ways to enact “creative approaches to living harmoniously within a constantly changing world,” from BC’s values, quoted by the Board.
Quite the opposite: it formalizes patrols, vaguely attempts to make them palatable, doesn’t establish any boundaries/guidelines for when/where they can happen, and dismisses the students’ and Board’s concerns without any input.