Campus Safety Audit Published

Judge Ladoris Cordell provides recommendations for Santa Clara’s Campus Safety

A recently released audit of the university's Department of Campus Safety (CSS) calls for an entirely "reimagined" approach with a primary focus on student wellness rather than law enforcement under the auspices of the Division of Student Life. A far-reaching list of 22 specific recommendations includes the elimination of handcuffs, room searches, and military-style uniforms. Anti-bias training would be required, the campus trespass policy would be revised, and students would join the campus safety staff.

The report details the findings of LaDoris H. Cordell, a retired judge, who was retained by the university to conduct an audit of campus safety in late August 2020 “for the purpose of making recommendations concerning the manner in which it provides security for the University.” This followed a highly publicized incident involving Santa Clara Campus Safety officers. Danielle Morgan, an assistant professor in the English Department, alleged that she was the target of racially motivated treatment by officers who escorted her brother off-campus and then questioned her at her home. CSS has denied the accusations.

The holistic approach to moving away from the current model would mean that campus safety would report to senior student affairs administrators instead. Cordell asserted that the transition to Student Life is logical as “Campus Safety officers most frequently interact with undergraduates.”

The audit called for periodic mental health trainings for the reimagined CSS personnel, as well as the inclusion of mental health professionals in the department’s on-site response team. Recalling his experience as a CF, Junior and Director of the MCC, Ángel Macias stressed the magnitude of this recommendation, that having mental health professionals respond to mental health calls in dorms is “very necessary, and as a university, we need that.”

A common thread throughout the recommendations is the replacement of law enforcement and military titles and uniforms with non-law enforcement and non-military titles and uniforms. Macias commented on this recommendation stating, “Changing campus safety’s logo to make it look nicer or less military style is not going to do anything.” 

The reimagined CSS Department would also require a minimum of an A.A. degree or equivalent education for all hires, which stood out to Senior and Associate Director of the MCC, Leah Sparkman as tangibly impactful. She expanded on the importance of this reform saying, “There’s an amount of critical thinking and education, and learning about other people outside of yourself required to do that position.”

Sparkman also agreed with Cordell’s recommendation to potentially monitor video surveillance passively rather than actively. Regarding the current CSS surveillance practices Sparkman said, “It is really weird that there are cameras everywhere and someone is always manning them. It feels like big brother is watching you. While they think it’s for our safety, there are weird people who come on campus anyways and I’ve seen campus safety not do a thing, so I don’t understand why that camera footage is necessary.”

Spaces for feedback is also a key part of the recommendations, as Cordell suggested the implementation of periodic campus-wide surveys about campus safety, which would be reported campus wide, an immediate feedback and complaint processes for individuals who have had interactions with campus safety.

The report includes feedback from the SCU community on CSS Officers, gathered from an electronically distributed campus-wide survey. Three hundred and one SCU community members responded, which included undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, staff, and alumni. 55% of respondents reported a positive perception of CSS. These respondents were mostly comprised of staff, faculty, and graduate students. The respondents with more negative perceptions of CSS were comprised of mostly undergraduate students and alumni.

The audit details conversations conducted with CSS employees, African American former CSS employees, and African American faculty, CSS unanimously insisted, according to the audit, that they are not racist and that they perform their work in a “colorblind manner.” The same section stated that a few CSS officers called an implicit bias training conducted in Oct. 2020 “a waste of time,” and “a form of discipline.” Some officers viewed it as “helpful.”

The report also includes feedback from CSS officers about working conditions at the university. Many reported hostile interactions. “Students are unfriendly and give us the cold shoulder," one stated. Another added, " I get the stink-eye from faculty.” 

Within the report, several CSS officers questioned the abilities of  President Kevin O’Brien, S.J. with anonymous comments. One officer commented, “The President doesn’t know how to sit and listen to the facts; he is one-sided.” Another added, “We were thrown under the bus with the President’s emails. He is not supportive of CSS and it doesn’t sit well.”

The report noted that CSS claims to be committed to customer service to the SCU community. It also pointed out that, “CSS’s training, verbiage, and activities also sends a message that it is primarily law enforcement focused.” Speaking to CSS’s acclaimed commitment to customer service in the audit, Senior Jocelyn Chi, Associate Director of the Santa Clara Community Action Program (SCCAP) in an interview with The Santa Clara said, “Since they’re committed to service and the point is to serve the community, I think they [CSS] should be listening to what students and faculty are saying, and really considering and thinking about how they [the administration] want to restructure this,” said.

CSS officers’ ideas to improve the department included purchasing more patrol vehicles, finding a new facility to house CSS, increasing their compensation, using body cameras as well as more surveillance cameras in general.

Associated Student Government will be holding an open forum for students to hear from Fr. O’Brien regarding the results of the audit on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021 at 8 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.