MOORHEAD — One of the many benefits of Concordia is that the campus is open to students, faculty and the general public. Individuals may enter and leave the grounds as they wish. However, this freedom can sometimes result in unwanted interactions between Fargo-Moorhead community members and the Concordia community, as seen over Labor Day weekend.
On Sunday, Sept. 3, two individuals were seen by multiple students engaging in sexual intercourse on Concordia’s grounds in the mid-afternoon. They were escorted off of Concordia’s property by Moorhead police after a call from within campus reported the incident.
This isn’t the first time members of the community have created issues within Concordia. Several years back, a non-student was removed from Concordia’s premises after reportedly harassing students by the bell tower.
“[He] was using a bullhorn to preach and that was becoming very disruptive,” director of public safety and security, Bill Mcdonald said.
“So he was asked to leave campus, but then he ended up on the public sidewalks on the corner of 12th Avenue and Eighth Street (near East Complex). And the Morehead police department couldn’t remove him from that public sidewalk because he wasn’t violating any ordinances or laws that they could find. He periodically still shows up at that intersection and does his thing, but he’s not allowed on campus.” McDonald said.
Concordia is open to the public, but with certain limitations, according to McDonald.
“(Members of the community) can attend classes and we have vendors coming on campus all the time to deliver things and to sell their products. So we’re open in that sense,” McDonald said. “But if somebody is interfering with our daily business or causing a disturbance or harassing our students, we can easily remove people.”
A campus that’s open to the general public causes concerns among students regarding their safety, especially in light of the incident from Labor day weekend.
“I feel safe here, but I feel like there are ways to make it feel safer,” first year student Saige Mattson said. “Being able to have confidence to know that nobody unsafe is (on campus) later at night would make me feel safer as a woman at Concordia.”
Other students and faculty have expressed their support for the policy, despite the possible risks it poses.
“I don’t feel less safe because there’s people here. If anything, I feel more safe and less isolated,” first year student Gray Gustafson said. “(Non-students) who walk (into Concordia) are not inherently more of a threat than other college students my age. Sure, I don’t know the strangers, but I also don’t know everyone who goes here.”
Jonah Overby, another first year student, posed a similar thought. Concordia offers a handful of choir, band, orchestra and theater performances throughout the year that are supported by community members. If campus wasn’t open, these community members may be deterred from supporting Concordia.
“Concordia is a lot smaller of a campus than, say, NDSU. But at the same time, it does provide things like the Concordia Christmas concerts and the theater productions. And I think that can help community involvement and get the community to participate.” Overby said.
There are a variety of resources available for students and staff to ensure safety, Mcdonald said.
The SafeWalk program, which is available all times of the day and week, allows students or staff to request an escort on campus or up to four blocks off campus. Concordia also provides active shooter training at the beginning of each semester. In addition, public safety and security work with Residence Life to hire instructors if students or faculty would like to be trained in self-defense.
“(Public safety doesn’t) do any self defense (training), but we work with ResLife to bring in outside instructors if people want to learn self-defense training for offices. We do training for (dealing with) agitated customers and people who trespass on campus.”
Beyond safety, McDonald also mentioned the concern for private property. “We have 185 (security) cameras on campus. So we do investigations and we can go back in time and check cameras if people have things stolen.”
Despite the measures taken by security, conflicts with members of the public are unavoidable.
“There are people who are not as committed as us to being good citizens and, and shaping a friendly, safe community, healthy community,” said Susan Lee, associate professor of art history. “(But) I feel like the health and prosperity of Concordia is intimately connected with our Fargo community. So I like the idea that we’re open and that we have this kind of connectedness.”
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