Duke Officials, Community Leaders Discuss Campus Security

Panelists touched on issues from the intensely local -- Duke's gated parking lots -- to the global -- the wall being built by Israel -- in an April 2 discussion of security measures.

The panel comprised Duke professors, a Duke official and community representatives, most of whom were highly critical of increased security and policing on campus.

"Duke is doing its part to produce students as the future gated community citizens of the nation and the world," said Wahneema Lubiano, professor of Literature and African and African American Studies.

But Susan Kauffman, of the Office of Public Affairs, said Duke is open to people from the community. She noted that Duke Forest, Duke Gardens and Duke Chapel attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

Duke is also more involved in the community than ever by working with Durham police, providing volunteers to work in the community, and through Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership projects, she said.

"Duke welcomes people to campus," she said. "When we're talking about Duke, we're talking about Durham. Duke folks are Durham folks."

Duke increased security on campus last fall after several armed robberies, including one at the Bryan Center. Measures included increased security patrols and gated parking lots that require a Duke ID card after dark. (More recently, two women have reported being sexually assaulted, prompting many students and parents to call for increased police presence.)

The panel, called "Security: The Comforts and the Costs," was held in the Mary Lou Williams Center. It was part of the Franklin Humanities Institute's "Dissent: Past and Present" series that commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Bassett Affair.

Panelist John Schelp, of the Old West Durham neighborhood association, also raised concerns about Duke's plans for the future. He said neighbors object to Duke officials not agreeing to never building a fence around East Campus. He also objected to plans for commercial development on Central Campus.

"I think there's a concern that the on-campus retail will create a self-contained environment," he said.

He also said neighbors' concerns were being dismissed or denigrated by Duke officials, and he objected to the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership program being administered through the "PR arm" of the university.

"Disagreements can't be papered over with a press release," he said.

Kauffman said Duke officials have never planned to build a fence or larger wall around East Campus, but they did not want to tie the hands of future boards of trustees by agreeing to never do so should security concerns call for it. She also said retail plans for Central Campus were modest enough that they would not deter students from going to 9th Street or other retail areas of Durham. She predicted business along 9th Street would actually increase as Duke faculty and staff moved into new housing planned for the Central Campus project.

Other panelists broadened the discussion to talk about other kinds of walls and fences, such as the barrier Israel is building to separate Palestinians and Israelis.

"For all of us who live in the South'we should be extremely sensitive when anyone says that word "separation" in a positive light," said Rania Masri, of the Institute for Southern Studies in Durham. "What if it does make [Israelis] safer? Does it justify having children playing in the shadow of the wall?"

And Donna Lisker, director of Duke's Women's Center, stressed that trying to keep people off campus wouldn't prevent most of the sexual assaults on Duke students. The Women's Center receives about 40 reports of sexual assault each year, she said, and generally only one report involves an attack from a stranger. Although trying to prevent stranger rape is important, Lisker said, women students should not ignore the greater risk they actually face.

"It's much more dangerous for our students, where sexual assault is concerned, to go out on a Friday or Saturday night than it is to walk across campus after dark," she said.

Lubiano said she understands what it's like to feel vulnerable: She is a rape survivor, her brother was killed in a liquor-store robbery and her sister-in-law worked in the part of the Pentagon attacked on September 11. Despite this, she said, she doesn't believe in trying to separate Duke from the community in the name of security.

"This making of obsessive security trains our students and ourselves to be bad citizens," she said.