Issue date: 5/3/02 Section: Letters to the Editor

I am writing in response to what I and many other students felt about Lori McCullough's piece in the April 20 issue of The Profile. I personally affirm Lori for making sure the campus knows how well they are "protected." I know that I am not alone in feeling appalled at the way that Public Safety and the Hendrix Administration handled the situation at Huntington.

The Mission Statement of Hendrix Public Safety reads as follows: "The mission for all members of the Hendrix College Public Safety Department is to promote and preserve a feeling of community safety by delivering quality public safety services...Hendrix College recognizes a positive obligation to protect members of the Hendrix community and visitors to its campus from physical harm, [and] threats of harm or abuse..."

It is the responsibility of the Hendrix students to demand this caliber of service from the men and women who are employed to protect us. Is the purpose of Public Safety to preserve the safety of Hendrix students or is it to give parking tickets and shut down parties? It is becoming increasingly obvious to me that Hendrix takes into consideration the way it is viewed by potential donating alumni and prospective students more than the safety of its students. On AND off campus students should have been notified of the potential dangers facing them as soon as they were brought to the attention of Public Safety and the Administration.

On a related note, I was disgusted and outraged to see that last Friday afternoon—kickoff day for Alumni Weekend—all copies of The Profile containing both Lori's letter and a biting response to some particularly immature "Captains" had been removed from all of the usual places including Mills, the Burrow, and Hulen. Copies of the old issue of the Profile, the special election segment and even the Profane were still readily available at some of these locations.

I am most certain that this was not the work of the Profile staff and feel that it infringes upon our rights as students to filter what information is available to us. Miraculously, the piles of the April 20th Profile re-appeared late Monday afternoon, when alumni were safely away from Hendrix. It is an insult to the intelligence of both students and alumni to decide what information they can and cannot have access to.

I don't know who was responsible for the disappearance of the papers, but I have a hard time believing that it was student-motivated. With tuition, housing and board costs on the rise, it makes me wonder whether the powers-that-be at Hendrix see their students as valuable individuals in the "community" or as walking manifestations of their parents' income.

Sincerely,
Laura Sessoms, '04

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