Spring Break
New club hosts student rights workshop
by Sam Datloff
News | 11/25/08
Posted online at 4:29 AM EST on 11/25/08
A theme frequently repeated, both by Associate Dean of Student Life Maggie Balch and Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan, was that the safety of all members of the University is paramount and that the rules and regulations set and enforced by the University are in place in order to maintain the safest environment possible. "The University's main goal or main issue is to provide a safe campus," Callahan said.
Members of the panel were willing to accept that, in some ways, the issues of search and seizure are nuanced problems. In addressing her discomfort with invading students' privacy without serious reason, Balch said, "We have lots of things we need to wrestle with." However, other members of the panel were adamant that in some areas of law enforcement, the facts are very cut-and-dried. In particular, SergeantBrian Lambert, the Waltham Police Department liaison to colleges, said that although he didn't think that a minimum drinking age of 21 was necessary, he would continue to prohibit underage drinking as long as the law remained in effect.
In the off-campus rights discussion, Jerry Kaufman of the community services division of the Waltham Police Department said that in regard to college parties causing conflict and disruption within the community, "things have gotten much, much better." Detective Lieutenant Steve Champion "agreed with much of what" Kaufman said in regards to the generally improved relations between college students and the Waltham community.
Champion was also explicit in telling students that the Waltham Police Department does not go out of its way to interfere with the lives of college students. When the police break up a party, he said it is typically in response to a loud noise complaint, he said. However, that is not to say that a party will be broken up just because the police receive a loud noise complaint. Champion said that the police will make their own assessment of the situation, and if they judge that the neighbor making the complaint is being unreasonable, they will clearly take this into account. He did articulate, however, that if multiple complaints were received, the party would almost certainly be broken up.
Members of the panel were willing to accept that, in some ways, the issues of search and seizure are nuanced problems. In addressing her discomfort with invading students' privacy without serious reason, Balch said, "We have lots of things we need to wrestle with." However, other members of the panel were adamant that in some areas of law enforcement, the facts are very cut-and-dried. In particular, SergeantBrian Lambert, the Waltham Police Department liaison to colleges, said that although he didn't think that a minimum drinking age of 21 was necessary, he would continue to prohibit underage drinking as long as the law remained in effect.
In the off-campus rights discussion, Jerry Kaufman of the community services division of the Waltham Police Department said that in regard to college parties causing conflict and disruption within the community, "things have gotten much, much better." Detective Lieutenant Steve Champion "agreed with much of what" Kaufman said in regards to the generally improved relations between college students and the Waltham community.
Champion was also explicit in telling students that the Waltham Police Department does not go out of its way to interfere with the lives of college students. When the police break up a party, he said it is typically in response to a loud noise complaint, he said. However, that is not to say that a party will be broken up just because the police receive a loud noise complaint. Champion said that the police will make their own assessment of the situation, and if they judge that the neighbor making the complaint is being unreasonable, they will clearly take this into account. He did articulate, however, that if multiple complaints were received, the party would almost certainly be broken up.
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