This article originally started as a piece to cover the University’s Blue Light system, or lack thereof, as an update to the February 13, 2022 article. However it was very difficult to get any information from the University, and I had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get the limited information that I do have. This is, in my opinion, not an isolated incident; it is a symptom of a much larger and underlying issue within the University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The story of the Blue Light system starts in the 2021-2022 academic year, when the University hired a third party to evaluate risks on campus. On the University side, this evaluation was being overseen by Tamara Kenney, who at that time was the dean of student wellbeing. In February 13, 2022, Fiat Lux <\/em>wrote an article covering the Blue Light system, in which they defined the Blue Light system as \u201ca series of emergency alarm stations placed across campus to provide assistance to anyone in distress. When the alarm station is activated, an officer or emergency team member will be dispatched to the location.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the risk assessment, the members of the Student Senate were interviewed to include student perspective. Over a month later, the members of Student Senate asked Tamara when we would be able to read a copy of the evaluation. She responded with a comment about not having received it yet. I personally remember asking several times, and I have an email to her requesting an update on February 15, 2022 stating \u201c[we] had spoken with him around late September, early October.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n More than two years after the fact, we still do not have a Blue Light system. So, earlier this semester, before the midterm break, I reached out to Amy DeKay, the VP of Student Experience, who said that the University had just submitted a request for a grant and gave me the name of Scott Richardson, director of Public Safety, who I could reach out to for more information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A couple of hours later, I saw that the meeting I had scheduled with Amy DeKay for after the break was canceled, so I went back to try and reschedule a meeting. Barbara Freeland, the secretary for Public Safety, intercepted me, and did not let me talk to Emma McDowell, executive assistant to Amy Dekay, to reschedule a meeting, insisting that I talk to Scott Richardson, because he can answer my questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I sent him an email asking for a time to meet. After about a month and a half with no response, I sent him a follow up email, and then followed up in person. He came off as dismissive, and told me that he did not know what was going on, and to reach out to Jaimie Babcock, head of Facilities, because this wasn’t Public Safety\u2019s area, this was Facilities\u2019s area. At this point, I was getting frustrated, and was concerned that I would continue to be bumped around. I followed up with Amy DeKay, expressing my frustration. To her credit, she showed an eagerness to answer my questions, and I sent her an email. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A couple of days later, I got a response from Mark Danes, vice president of Marketing and Communications. Most answers to my questions were non-committal or initially did not answer the question. Some of the questions and responses are as follows: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Q: Who is heading the committee for the installation of Blue Light & other security systems on campus? Who are the different members of this committee?<\/p>\n\n\n\n A: There is not a standing committee. Rather, the university takes a collaborative approach to determine the best people to assign to an issue for an expedient resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q: Who are the people, or departments you have identified as “the best people to assign to an issue for an expedient resolution?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A. It can be a variety of people depending on the project. They can draw from several departments depending on the subject matter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n My reason for highlighting this question specifically is because this is one of the questions that I initially asked Scott Richardson, which he then tried to direct to Jaimie Babcock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a recap, I was blocked from scheduling a meeting with Amy, and the meeting with Amy was then canceled, because I was told to meet with Scott instead. So, I went to reschedule a meeting with Amy, before being blocked by Barbara again, because she insisted that Scott had the answers. Then I waited a month and a half to be told by Scott that he didn’t have the answers, that there was a committee, and I was redirected to Jaimie. I then reached back out to Amy, who redirected me to Mark, who told me that the University did not have a committee, but instead had a collaborative group who worked together to find solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Confused? So am I, which gets me to my point: Every time I tried to get information, especially about accountability, the blame got pushed off to somebody else. When I asked when information would be made available, we were told that the University hasn’t received it yet. When I asked who is in charge of overseeing the Blue Light system, I was told that a committee is in charge of it, but given no answers as to who is in charge of or part of the committee. When I asked both Amy DeKay and Mark Danes about the report conducted by Tamara, they both asked me for more information about it, making it sound like this was their first time hearing about such a report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is possible, but I don’t know if it’s worse that no administrator is willing to take responsibility for the University\u2019s failures out of self-preservation, or that no administrator is taking responsibility because the University left no one in charge of it. Mark Danes made a fair point that it was not Amy DeKay\u2019s fault, because the University\u2019s lack of progress in installing a Blue Light system existed before she even began working here, but then who\u2019s to blame? <\/p>\n\n\n\n In my opinion, incompetency doesn\u2019t just happen, it happens when people allow it to happen. The term \u201cThe Buck stops here\u201d is an idiom \u201cused to say that one accepts a responsibility and will not try to give it to someone else\u201d (Webster Dictionary). Does \u201cThe Buck stops here\u201d apply at Alfred University? The simple answer is no.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Johnny Molyneaux, Staff Writer This article originally started as a piece to cover the University’s Blue Light system, or lack thereof, as an update to the February 13, 2022 article. However it was very difficult to get any information from the University, and I had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-wide.php","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"apple_news_channel":"primary","apple_news_api_id_2":"","apple_news_api_created_at_2":"","apple_news_api_modified_at_2":"","apple_news_api_revision_2":"","apple_news_api_share_url_2":"","apple_news_sections_2":[],"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[170],"class_list":["post-854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-_newspack_opinion","entry"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n