With a recent incident occurring on campus at McLean Hall, many students begin to wonder about safety. While this incident seems self-contained, it appears to be part of a much larger issue. Whenever something like this occurs on campus, an email is sent out, students are told that “it’s an active investigation,” and it is lost in history. 

For more information regarding the incident in question, see Page A1.

The only information that was given to students was an email that read, “Earlier this evening a group of individuals not affiliated with the university were involved in an incident near McLean Hall,” with some other brief but vague information.

Does the university have a transparency problem? Naturally, in this age of internet connectivity, students text one another, and photos were sent of the massive gathering of police on campus. On top of that, Yik Yak has made it far easier for anyone to spread misinformation and rumors. Without the university sending any kind of update or genuine facts to inform students, the rumors can spiral into something far worse, and many will treat it as gospel.

Speaking of Yik Yak, on Tuesday, Sept. 12, a threat was made against campus. Students who saw the original post were of course concerned, but it was only exacerbated by the Shippensbur University Police Department sending an incredibly vague email that provided nothing to really help students. See page A1 for additional information on this incident.

Perhaps the administration could provide some follow-up about if the threat mentioned specific buildings, how students could remain safe in the event the threat was genuine. The university still has not clarified if the person who made the threat was found and if the person is facing any kind of repercussion. 

Even the notion of what the university deems a threat is vague. SUPD will often refer to a threat as active and perceived. For many students a threat is all they need to make them worried, and not having any kind of defined guideline for knowing which threats are more dangerous than others will just lead students to assume all threats are of equal danger to them.

Cars are being stolen from university property, and the university is not even telling students it has happened. An email was sent out by the campus informing students on how to keep their vehicles safe. What the email did not mention was that a car was stolen, and subsequently damaged on Wednesday, Sept. 13, according to a source familiar with the incident. However, if you were to ask any student who also stores their car on campus, they would probably have no idea that this even happened.

It should go without saying, but just because people do not know about things that are happening does not mean those things are not happening, and they’ll keep happening if no one is informed about it.

There is not even adequate transparency for students in regard to less serious topics. For example, how long did it take many of us to figure out we had guest swipes included in our meal plan?

Many feel as if there is not really any transparency in general. At most, there is very little of it. Most of the time, we rely on people who were nearby or pictures and videos posted online to just get even the slightest idea on what may have happened. This is applicable to any incident that happens on campus.

Adding to that, when it comes to safety, specifically with the incident outside of McLean Hall, we get very little information on what happened. The email we received told us very little as to what happened, which on one hand makes sense as it is an ongoing investigation; however, the email mentioned nothing about if anyone was hurt and the two stretchers that came out of the building. There is little-to-no transparency given, especially when it comes to safety concerns, which is highly worrying.

The email that was sent out regarding the most recent incident was insultingly vague. The campus community should be notified of safety issues as soon as they happen so they can avoid the area and any danger. When the emails only make students more confused or anxious about campus safety, are they even worth sending?

It took over an hour between the first messages in the Slate Discord server and the university’s email when the incident in McLean Hall was happening. During that time, rumors and hearsay ran wild, and nobody was sure what was happening. Even now, we still have very little information on what happened.

The university, SUPD and Housing need to be more open and responsive. The fact that RAs are instructed not to say anything to the media is troubling. We as student media rely on our peers as sources, and that policy makes it harder for us to report on what is happening on our campus.

We demand better communication.

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