By Emily Senger
The Campus Security Report for April is in, and the results show that people do stupid stuff.
The stupidity began with a bang on April 1 with an April Fool’s Day prank. An unknown individual or individuals entered Engineering 201A, removing some bolts from fixed seating leaving some desks precariously wobbly. Students with classes in ENG 201A were temporarily relocated to an alternate classroom while the bolts were tightened. Campus security suspects Management students as the culprits due to the ongoing Management/Engineering rivalry.
The University of Calgary’s Vice President External had a soggy office after a contractor hit a radiator pipe with a jackhammer in the Administration building. The pipe ruptured on the second floor of Administration but the large volume of water caused damage in both the main floor offices and in the basement.
Two male students were confronted by Campus Security after a physical altercation in an Infor-mation Commons washroom. The students were known to each other and neither was seriously hurt.
“There was a long standing disagreement; the two people met and decided to have a pushing and shoving match,” commented Campus Security Manager Lanny Fritz. He also noted that the conflict was highly noticeable due to its location near the quiet study area of the Info Commons.
A child around three years of age was left unattended in a locked vehicle in Lot 16. Calgary Police were notified and opened the vehicle to find the child sleeping peacefully and in perfect health. The parent of the child was also located.
“It’s illegal to neglect your child and that [neglect] is open to interpretation,” said Fritz. “From Campus Security’s point of view, it was in the best interest of the child to gain entry into the vehicle.”
Following BSD festivities, a male student crashed his parents’ Blazer into a concrete barrier by the new Alberta Children’s Hospital on West Campus. The driver was uninjured but his parents’ Blazer sustained significant damage. Campus security has reason to believe that alcohol was a factor in the accident.
A data projector was discovered missing from a secured classroom and Campus Security found evidence of another attempted projector theft. Projector theft is a major problem on campus and these large ticket items are sold for use in home theater systems.
“We have off-campus criminals that steal these things,” said Fritz. He reiterated that U of C students are seldom responsible for the theft of the data projectors.
There were also the all too common residence false fire alarms. One or more unknown individuals broke the fire alarm panel in Norquay Hall activating the speaker system and evacuation horn, requiring evacuation of the apartments. In another instance, both the Kananaskis and Rundle Hall fire alarms were activated at the same time. Extremely windy conditions at the time may have interrupted the power supply and caused the false alarms.
Following a number of pedestrian complaints, Fritz wants to caution cyclists to be responsible in sharing the sidewalk with pedestrians.
“Cyclists using sidewalks should use them at a very slow speed. We have a lot of cyclists on campus, they should be reminded that they’re sharing [sidewalks] with pedestrians.”