According to the director of Campus Security, Terry White, the thefts occurred when individuals were able to enter apartments through unlocked doors and windows.

“We didn’t have anybody kick in doors, and it was happening in the apartments, not residence halls, so we said, ‘What can we do about that?’” White said. After talks with the the offices of Student Affairs and Residence Life, the university implemented a program where the night shift officers check for locked doors in the campus apartments, White said.

“The officers try the door. If it’s locked they move on to the next one; if they find the door unlocked, they knock loudly, identify themselves as security, and wake up the people if they are asleep,” White said. If possible, the officers talk with the residents about why they need to lock their doors.

So far, White says the program had been effective. The night shift officers have reported fewer unlocked doors as the program has progressed.

“I understand that some of the students who are being waked up, aren’t crazy about the fact that they’re being awakened, and I can understand that,” White said. “There’s one simple thing they can do to keep that from happening — lock their doors.”

Apart from manually checking doors, White said that in the past year, Campus Security has maintained the increased patrols by Belmont officers. Cameras have also been added at various locations, including by the gates.

White acknowledges, however, that with the current number of officers, there are limitations.

“I have X number of people for our total tasking, so if I dedicate someone to the apartments, it takes them away from checking the classroom buildings as often, or doing other tasking,” White said. “We are to the point of needing more people.”

At the moment, senior leadership, Residence Life, the dean of students, and Campus Security are looking at what they can realistically do.

The addition of the pharmacy and law schools is also to be taken under consideration.

“It’s going to add more people to Belmont — anytime you have a university setting in an urban area, you have security problems, you have parking problems — you have a lot of people in a small area,” White said.

Though there is no formal legal boundary delineating how far the university can go to protect its students, Andrew Johnston, associate provost and dean of students said, “We feel it’s our role to create an environment where students can be safe and secure.”

He also expressed concern regarding the “community’s confidence in our institution’s attentiveness.”

Some students do not place much faith in the Belmont’s campus safety.

“I feel a lot safer now that I’m not living on campus,” senior music business major Read Davis said.

“I could feel a lot safer,” senior nursing major Kristin Kapolas said, especially in light of the incidents of the past year that included a rape. “You should be able to have that security,” she said.

Both White and Johnston also talked about the need to better communicate with students.

According to White, crime prevention officer Renee Ruthven plays a large role in reaching out to Belmont students, including through a Facebook group called Keep Belmont Safe.

“It’s just a place for people to voice any concerns they have, a place for her to exchange information with them and we’ve had some good success with that,” White said.

“Certainly plenty is done in terms of convos to inform,” Davis said. “I love the text updates when they work.”

Freshman English writing major Hillary Merwin talked about having heard of all the security warnings throughout the semester. “I feel really safe,” she said, also referencing seeing the Belmont security officers on their bikes around campus on a regular basis.

Johnston doesn’t see the task of communicating with students as something that is ever “achieved and checked off.” He said that the university’s efforts are continuous.

Still, “you’ve got to do some things to protect yourself,” White said. “We’re not trying to push responsibility on someone else, but we all have responsibility for crime prevention — we can only do so much.”

The student, identified only as Jane Doe in court papers, has now filed a lawsuit against Belmont University claiming that “insufficient security measures contributed to the assault and that the school downplayed the violent incident in the aftermath,” according to the Nashville City Paper.

At the time of the incident, ID card-activated gates had been removed from the Bruin Hills complex, this is one of several security issues cited in the lawsuit. Director of campus security Terry White told the Belmont Vision in January that the decision came partly because the money typically used for maintenance could be “better utilized to buy cameras and other crime prevention devices.”

The claim filed in Davidson County  Circuit Court also charges that Belmont “sent e-mail announcements to its students intentionally misrepresenting the nature and extent of the incident so as to minimize the perception of harm and/or danger to its students.”

White, in his statement to the  Vision just weeks after the incident was reported, acknowledged the change in wording over the course of several days and attributed it to the effort to “get information out as quickly as possible” while not startling anyone unnecessarily or “putting out information that would be erroneous.”

Director of Campus Security Terry White said the Crisis Emergency Management Plan was created to communicate with students and faculty during an emergency.

White said the CEMP is used “anytime personal safety is concerned.” These instances might include a weather emergency, fires, wrecks and situations with a hostage or shooter.

CEMP differs depending on the circumstances; the action required by Campus Security depends on the crisis taking place. The basic outline of the plan is to respond to the situation/call, get proper assistance if necessary – Metro Police, for example – and notify Greg Pillon, director of the Office of Marketing and Communications, to send out a text message alert.

The CEMP has been employed in the past. It was used in 2008 during a “shooter” situation in the Thrailkill Hall parking garage. The situation turned out to be a false alarm involving two Belmont students, but Campus Security responded by calling Metro Police and sending out text alerts once enough information was confirmed. Belmont Security sent another text informing students and staff that the situation had been resolved.

Campus Security takes measures to ensure its officers are prepared to respond in crisis situations.

“There is monthly training, as well as ‘Tabletop Exercises’ where I give a scenario piece-by-piece,” White said. Belmont Security also participates in on-the-job training.

Campus Security works to help faculty and students protect themselves, as well. Last spring, faculty were invited to several film viewings of Shots Fired. This film discusses ways to protect oneself and one’s students if a Virginia Tech situation were to occur on the Belmont campus.

This film viewing was offered to students as convocation credit this fall. While no more viewings are scheduled, more may be planned for spring.

“The best training for students and staff is to see the film and remember ‘Get out, hide out, take out’,” White said. “It’s impossible to run drills because of the various factors that could occur.”

Staying informed during a crisis situation can be difficult because the issue is often resolved before accurate information can be sent out. Students should remember the text alert system is designed to disseminate quick information, not a lengthy report. “We have to get the most important information in 116 characters,” White said about the text system.

White said students must also take steps to ensure their own safety. “There’s no way I can guarantee your safety; each individual must [protect] themselves.”

“We offer the class once a month, but there’s a lot of classes that end up not going at all,” said Campus Security officer Renee Ruthven, who teaches the class, formally called Rape Aggression Defense Systems.

A Belmont graduate herself, Ruthven knows how busy college students are, but she believes schedules are not the only reason for such low turnout.

“You feel invincible.  Nothing bad’s ever happened to you, so unless something bad happens to you or somebody you know, you just don’t give much thought to your personal safety at this age,” she said.

Had students been more cautious, 83 percent of crimes at Belmont in 2008 and 75 percent of those committed so far in 2009 would have been preventable, said Ruthven.

The R.A.D. class strives to equip women to stay safe through physical training and lectures on self-defense.  “I’ll talk about the pros and cons of going for the groin,” said Ruthven.

The three-session class ends with a simulation where women practice their newfound skills on a male volunteer outfitted in big red pads, who Ruthven called “the Michelin Man.”  This helps build confidence when participants realize they can fight back in real world scenarios.

Many students mistakenly believe they do not need training to handle such situations, said Ruthven, but do not even know basic safety tips for walking alone at night.

“My roommate is pretty paranoid about that kind of thing,” said Rachel Heintz, a junior who lives in Hillside.  “She’ll call me when she’s walking home so she’s on the phone until she gets to the door.”

This may seem like a smart practice, but it is exactly what you should not do, said Ruthven.  As she teaches in the R.A.D. classes, an ideal victim is a woman who is on her cell phone looking down.

“Whether I just want to steal your purse or steal you, if you’re not paying attention to me, I can grab you and do whatever I want to you before you know what happens,” she said.

She recommended students who feel uncomfortable on campus call Belmont Security for an escort and look directly at anybody acting suspicious.

Campus Security’s main concern is getting this kind of critical information to students, so Ruthven has enlisted some unexpected allies to promote her crime prevention seminars.

“During move-in day, I like to hang out and talk to parents,” she said with a laugh.  “I did overhear one conversation of a girl saying, ‘My mom said I had to come to this.’  Whatever gets them there.”

Ruthven realized she could not rely on Mom and Dad once students were on their own, so she started a “Keep Belmont Safe” Facebook group.  The conversation between security officers and students has sparked the creation of a Campus Safety Commission allowing students to give suggestions to Belmont Security.

“The only way we’re going to be able to do anything is by working together instead of them seeing us as the ‘parking meanie,’” said Ruthven.  “Most criminals are looking for crimes of opportunity.  Take away the opportunity; take away the crime.”

The next R.A.D. class begins Oct. 4. The Campus Safety Commission will begin biweekly meetings on Oct. 7 at 10 a.m. in the Beaman Student Life Center.  E-mail crimeprevention@belmont.edu or call Campus Security at 615-460-6617 to sign up or learn more information.

The law also recognizes that Belmont must take “reasonable steps to maintain the safety” of its students, staff and faculty.

The university can make sure locks work, campus security is trained and the emergency notification system functions, but inevitably, Rogers pointed out, the university cannot keep the campus of more than 5,000 crime-free.

On the morning of Dec. 5, e-mails and texts went out warning students of “an intrusion and assault” in the Bruin Hills apartment complex. It would be three more days before students were notified of more details about the seriousness of the crime, and even now, nearly six weeks later, little information is available through official channels.

When an incident occurs on campus, there’s a specific protocol for handling the situation, Director of Campus Security Terry White explained.

If someone places a call to campus security, the officers on duty respond first and are in charge of contacting Metro Police, not just to involve them, but also to check the surrounding area depending on the situation.

White is notified and in turn contacts Rogers. Both work with the Dean of Students as well as campus communications.

On the morning of Dec. 5, all were on campus by 6 a.m., White said, and set to work in part, deciding how to “alert people to the fact we’ve had an incident” in terms of method of communication and wording.

He described an effort to “get information out as quickly as possible” while not startling anyone unnecessarily or “putting out information that would be erroneous.”

On Dec. 8, the wording changed.  The announcement was updated to an “attempted sexual assault.” According to White, second notification came because they did not have much information initially. Meanwhile, stories of the incident – with various levels of severity –  spread among students.  Belmont’s statements have confirmed only the “attempted” incident as described Dec. 8.

Though details are restricted, White did say, “There’s not been an arrest made as of yet.”
Metro Police spokesman Don Aaron said the crime report, ultimately a public record, is not yet available to the media because of the ongoing investigation.

Since the incident, senior leadership decided to put the 15th Avenue gates back up. While it comes as a direct result of the assault, White said that incident did not happen because the gates were down.

Rather, reinstalling the gates, along with the addition of security cameras, will better aid in keeping a record of who passes through them. A pedestrian gate is also being put in between 15th Avenue and the Thraillkill parking garage.

The gates were originally installed in the 1990s when Belmont acquired the Bruin Hills apartments. The apartments were on the edge of campus at the time, but the construction of both Thrailkill and the Hillside apartments brought more traffic to the area.

At one point the gates were only closed at night and eventually weren’t closed at all, up to their removal in the fall of 2008.

“They weren’t serving the purpose they were designed to serve,” White said.

The decision came partly because the money typically used for maintenance could be “better utilized to buy cameras and other crime prevention devices.”

Gates aside, residence life director Anthony Donovan discussed what could be done to reduce vulnerability. He sees it as a matter of “education and active participation to enhance people’s safety.”

The residence life staff checks for locked doors throughout the year and always has resident assistants and directors on call and making rounds. Residence hall staffers have the ability to schedule programming to address any pertinent issues, although, according to Donovan, personal safety/crime prevention programming is significantly under- attended.

“We get people who are already concerned about safety and security,” Donovan said. Yet, he feels that if one person benefits, it’s worth doing. Between programs like R.A.D (Rape Aggression Defense), convos like Tongue Fu, the art of verbal self-defense, and newsletters, Donovan hopes the effects will be in the combined offerings.

“We try to reach as many areas of concern with students by trying different approaches,” he said.

Beyond reminding students to lock doors and the like, White was quick to warn of being lulled into a false sense of security.

“Safety precautions still need to be taken,” White said.

As for the students’ perspective, the reviews are mixed.

“The office of security does a really good job and a lot of the issues they have to deal with are not their fault,” sophomore commuter student Hannah Shipp said. Shipp, more often than not, finds herself leaving campus after 9 p.m. and stated firmly that she feels safe.

Sophomore Jordan Smith explained that there should be “more concentration on keeping bad intruders out” than ticketing students for smoking or parking violations.

“It’s a waste of resources” Smith said, “it’s a relatively small campus, there’s no reason for this to be happening.”

Junior social entrepreneurship major Sarah Chellappa said she felt safe “for the most part,” though “as a girl there will always be that extra caution.”

Mostly, Chellappa sees pointlessness in the reappearance of gates that didn’t work in the first place.