The Rochester Hills senior said he feels there is more ease on campus with an increasingly positive outlook on the LGBTQ community.

“I think it is safer to walk around on campus because the campus is becoming more accepting,” Aepelbacher said. “I see a lot more gay and lesbian couples holding hands and I don’t see them getting dirty looks from other people.”

As vice president of Spectrum, CMU’s gay/straight alliance, Aepelbacher helps promote equality and fairness regardless of sexual orientation and race.

Although he does not recall any discrimination toward himself at CMU, there have been incidents on campus in the past.

Shannon Jolliff, director of Gay and Lesbian Programs, said the last recorded occurrence was in Pride Week 2006 when negative phrases were chalked outside of Anspach Hall.

The increasing acceptance and understanding is credited to people becoming more educated about the gay community, Jolliff said.

“For the past three years I have been the first full-time director in the Office of Gay and Lesbian Services,” Jolliff said. “Since we had a budget increase, that allows us to provide more education and provide more programs for people to get involved.”

Student Ombuds Officer Jon Humiston, a Mount Pleasant graduate student, said hefeels the changes over the years have been significant.

“There has been an LGBT(Q) student group in existence on campus since the early 1970s and an ever-increasing number of students wanting to get involved with CMU’s current two student organizations, Spectrum and Transcend,” Humiston said.

Some LGBTQ students still face harassment and discrimination on campus, but overall the climate seems to be less hostile, he said.

To increase awareness, the Office of Gay and Lesbian Programs offers the Safe Zone Program.

The two-hour training program is open to the entire campus and invites people to learn about terminology, the campus climate and the coming out process, Jolliff said.

“As of now, 420 people have gone through the program,” Jolliff said. “People who go through it set themselves as allies of the community and have Safe Zone responsibilities and duties.”

Although the campus community is becoming more accepting, the LGBTQ community still faces many issues. Of those issues, Humiston feels it is hard for students to face the coming-out process.

“Students coming out sounds like a one-time event,” Humiston said. “However, students are constantly having to decide whether it is safe to come out to roommates, new friends and acquaintances, teachers and staff members. This can add additional stress to a student’s already stressful academic world.”

The Office of Gay and Lesbian Services provides a “coming out” support group for those who are looking for help.

Jolliff said though the development of the LGBTQ community has improved, it is nowhere near perfect.

“Overall, I think we are slowly but surely moving in a positive direction,” Aepelbacher said.

Shooting incidents and safety procedures should not only be accessible for those who seek it.

With papers due, upcoming tests and involvement in various registered student organizations, the average student does not think of emergency situation procedures from day to day. Information on shooting situations and general campus safety should be within easy access for all.

The Virginia Tech shooting was the deadliest shooting in U.S. history and its school placed procedures on preventing and surviving school shooter incidents after 32 people were killed.

The biggest problem with scenarios like this is the fact that people often believe it could never happen. With this mindset, we are not prepared if someone ever went on a killing spree. For example, the Virginia Tech Review Panel found that schools should check the hardware on exterior doors to ensure that they cannot be chained shut. There may be doors in CMU that can be chained shut. Are all of them checked?

Northern Illinois University suffered a shooter situation as well and like Virginia Tech did not place procedures of safety and survival until after the shooting. The State of Illinois Campus Security Task Force Report found that colleges and universities should have training with the National Incident Management System.

There is always room for improvement in campus safety. We also have Safe Rides and the blue light emergency system. The locations of the blue lights should be posted around campus or incorporated on some map inside of dorms, so students know where to find them.

We also have Central Alert, an emergency notification system where information is provided via phone, e-mail or text. Instead of “interested” students, faculty and staff, this should be required, so those “interested” will not be the only survivors when an emergency occurs. It is important for everyone to be notified of an emergency situation.

On the CMU police website, I found stuff that otherwise I would have never known like the Sexual Assault Response Pledge. Information like this should be included in orientation materials. “Shots Fired,” presented by the Center for Personal Protection and Safety, is a video designed to provide guidance on how to recognize and survive an active shooter situation. “Shots Fired” could perhaps be incorporated in the freshman orientation presentations much like “No Zebras, No Excuses” has been.

The most crucial thing to remember in the prevention of our school being in the news at the hands of a mass murderer or emergency situation is to be prepared and to realize that anything is possible.

That is why about 3,000 copies of an emergency and safety procedures guide were distributed across campus April 23.

“It (is) really intended to be another resource to provide some of the policies and procedures of emergency situations,” said Tony Voisin, director of student life and member of the Crisis Response Team. “What started as a smaller project developed into a campus wide resource guide.”

The idea come from seeing a safety guide from Ferris State University, Voisin said. He began the planning for the guide in May 2009 and the first copies of the guide were handed out to staff members in the Dean of Students Office and Office of Student Life in August 2009.

When the Crisis Response Team saw the guide they wanted to expand it to the rest of the university, said David Burdette, vice president of Finance and Administrative Services.

“I found it to be a handy reference guide,” said Burdette, who is also team chairman. “If you want to know what to do at a variety of emergencies, the guide gives you the idea of what to do.”

The emergency and safety procedures guide includes 10 possible events which may occur on campus requiring emergency response. These events include fires, explosions, bomb threats, medical emergencies, tornadoes and severe weather.

The guide also provides contact numbers, steps in preparing and handling such situations. Voisin said the guide is meant to keep near a telephone and handy in times of need.

“It’s all right there at your finger tips,” Voisin said. “It’s a handy resource to have in front of (you).”

The guide was distributed to several offices across campus including Residence Life, Bovee University Center, Warriner Hall and several other halls.

Burdette said the offices chosen to receive the guide were based on the availability of a telephone. Students living in residence halls did not receive the guide but Burdette said this will be the next step for the safety guide.

Other team members include Jon Kujat, manager of environmental and safety services risk management, Dean of Students Bruce Roscoe, and Steve Lawrence, associate vice president of Facilities Management.

“We do have a group of caring professionals on this campus,” Burdette said. “It’s a proactive group of professionals that talk about (safety).”

CMU Police Chief Bill Yeagley said the emergency and safety procedures guide also is a reminder for CMU community to prepare and discuss the possible disasters that may occur on campus.

Yeagley said there are several other ways to access procedures that should be taken if emergencies do occur, including online and evacuation plans located on the walls of each building.

“I’m glad the university has yet another tool out there to keep the university community safe and help us deal with an emergency if it occurs,” he said. “This guide helps to have a plan.”

Five people were arrested for their alleged involvement. The authorities stated: “As people announced over time that this was going on, more people came to see, and some actually participated.”

It was estimated that as many as 20 students witnessed this assault and did nothing.

Why didn’t anyone do anything to stop this or report it to the police? Why wasn’t anyone looking out for this woman? The behavior of the assailants is reprehensible; the behavior of the bystanders who did nothing is a serious concern.

I truly hope that members of the Central Michigan University community would demonstrate a very different level of concern and involvement if they witnessed an assault.

When I first arrived at CMU, the university was described as “big enough to matter, small enough to care.”

It was an accurate statement about the size of the institution and the concern which people regularly demonstrated toward one another. I think this still describes us.

A few years later, Steve Thompson, Director of Sexual Aggression Services, developed the program “No Zebras,” which conveys the importance of not being a bystander and deliberately doing something when someone else is being harmed or making decisions which might place one at risk. This program is attended by all students as part of the Campus and Community Life Orientation program.

In 2005, we started a “Take Care” effort to promote an atmosphere of caring throughout the university community.

Steve Tait, Class of 2006, wrote, “We will act to encourage a lifestyle in which we take care of ourselves and the person next to us. We strive to be the helping hand in any situation in which others need support.”

We talk about taking care of one another quite a bit at Central, more than most universities do.

We encourage people to be aware of those around them and the situations they are in.

We make people aware of the resources available to them (e.g., CMU Police, Residence Life Staff, Sexual Aggression Services, Counseling Center, Health Services). We advocate that people take action when they see a need arise.

We hope people recognize that as a members of the CMU community they have the right, indeed the duty, to look out for one another and to get assistance when it is needed.

CMU is “big enough to matter, and small enough to care”.

We do CARE about one another.

We do LOOK OUT for one another.

Bruce Roscoe,
Dean of Students