This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Bucknell chapter.
Returning to my room late on a Friday night a few weeks ago, I take off my makeup, wash my face, brush my teeth (mainly so I don’t dig into the brownies my mom sent to me in a care package earlier that week), put my pajamas on and walk down the hall to check in with my friend to see how her night was. When I walked in, instead of only seeing Theresa in her room, I found a teary Theresa accompanied by Julia. Immediately, I was bombarded.
“We just got a ride home from the police!”
“We were just written up!”
“The police stopped us on the way home and drove us back to our room!”
The only question I could come up with was “Why?”
In the past two years that I’ve been at Bucknell, I’ve heard numerous stories of students being brought home by the police and written up by Public Safety. Sometimes these are warranted, as when a freshman girl was walking toward Route 15 at 1:30 in the morning in a dress and heels. Other times, these police interventions seem to be more panic-inducing than helpful in protecting the safety of our students, like the time my friend was picked up because she was walking home alone in her Halloween costume. In these situations, the defendant doesn’t stand a chance; you can say you weren’t drinking and fail a Breathalyzer test, or you can say you were drinking and have your BAC recorded.
I have also heard horror stories about bad interactions and encounters with public safety. When a friend of mine—we can call her Cathy—returned to campus in the midst of a Sunday night snowstorm, she found that her small Toyota Camry, equipped only to conquer the non-frozen roads of Washington, D.C. was unable to navigate through the snow at the top of Roberts hill. Cathy called Public Safety to ask for help. Could she park somewhere more accessible for her car? The man on the phone told her that she absolutely had to park in student parking. Cathy said that he “refused to help me or make any accommodation whatsoever and was rude on the phone.” This certainly does not seem to be in the best interests of the student.
I tried to contact the Public Safety office in order to have an interview with an officer. I wanted to know their take on the downtown party scene, their view on underage drinking. However, after two walk-in visits in which I was greeted by an officer who informed me that the Captain (who has to approve all interviews) was not in the office, followed by two unanswered emails, I gave up and unfortunately had to write this article without their perspective.
My friends Theresa and Julia were taken home by the Lewisburg Police because Theresa tripped on the sidewalk while walking home. This simply does not seem like a situation that requires extra attention from the police. Were Theresa and Julia hazards to themselves or others around them? Theresa most likely tripped because she was wearing heels while navigating the cracked and uneven sidewalks of downtown Lewisburg. Perhaps the officers could have stopped and asked if they were ok; the girls were, after all, a block away from their dorm rooms. However, both Julia and Theresa were written up and now have to go to court to discuss their case with the judge.
Despite all I have written, we do appreciate so much of what Public Safety does for Bucknell’s campus and students. We appreciate the alerts we receive to move our cars during a storm. We are grateful that officers patrolled the streets during the flood day, and we are appreciative of Public Safety’s efforts in sexual safety education to address the growing threat of sexual offenses on campus. However, I think Public Safety’s strategy in dealing with underage drinking needs to be adjusted. I do not think that it is a radical concept to say that on a college campus there will be drinking. Alcohol is simply an aspect of the life and culture of American institutions; we need only look at the classic film Animal House to learn that. Is this against the law? Yes. Can it be dangerous? Yes. However, drinking can also be a learning experience in self-control, self-respect, and personal and social responsibility. Rather than trying to squash the campus drinking climate, authorities should reform it. Teach the students how to drink responsibly. Help us socialize with each other in situations that do not involve alcohol. We realize the concerns held by the authorities at Bucknell and, for the most part, we share these concerns. However, I think it’s important that Public Safety and other Bucknell authority figures work with the students rather than against us to better this problem.
