Public Safety launches liaison program with eating clubs

To develop stronger relationships with the clubs and their leadership, Public Safety officers have now been paired for the first time with each eating club to act as official liaisons.

The department envisions that the officers — eight patrol officers, a sergeant and a lieutenant — will have coffee or meals at their specified clubs once a month and serve as an informal sounding board for questions and concerns that students have related to Public Safety.

“I want the clubs to know we’re always there, always a resource,” Sergeant Sean Ryder said, the department’s community relations officer who is leading the Eating Club Officers program, or EChO.

He said that, if officers are having a meal in the club with members, students “can come and sit at the table and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got a question for you,’ ” and discuss a variety of Public Safety-related issues.

At Terrace Club, president Ricardo Lopez ’12 said students are already taking advantage of the resources offered by their liaison, Detective Michele Aversa.

“It’s just convenient to have someone that you know at hand to ask any questions you may have,” he said, noting that the club’s officers invited Aversa to lunch and gave her a tour of the club.

“Often our members aren’t sure about certain procedures or policies, and having an assigned liaison encourages people to ask the questions that they feel like asking and really quell any uncertainty they have with our relationship with Public Safety,” he added.

Derek Grego ’12, president of Cap & Gown Club, said in an email that “the liaison program has been a great asset so far.”

“It’s a great opportunity to interact with [Public Safety] officers in a casual setting and lets us discuss prominent issues or topics that have come up. I have a great working relationship with Cap’s liaison, and I know I can come to him with anything,” Grego said. Cap & Gown’s liaison is Patrol Officer Deyo Swartz.

Julia Blount ’12, president of Quadrangle Club, explained in an email that the club spoke with its liaison, Patrol Officer Jeremy Sepulveda, prior to fall Lawnparties — a discussion she found to be “extremely helpful.”

At Tiger Inn, president Jeff Cole ’12 said their liaison, Patrol Officer Luke Miller, had coffee with members recently.

“Officer Miller is a productive resource for the club and provides the membership with a point person in DPS to come to with questions, comments or concerns,” Cole said in an email.

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The initiative is modeled after liaison positions the department has developed with other student groups, but Ryder said that relationships with the eating clubs are different, especially considering the history of the clubs on campus.

Plans for the Public Safety relationship with the clubs began four or five years ago, said Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Maria Flores-Mills, the primary Nassau Hall liaison to the eating clubs.

She said she has worked to develop stronger working relationships between the eating clubs and the administration over the past several years, and the EChO program is “the fruition of all that kind of groundwork.”

“It clarifies for the students the community caretaking role and community caretaking perspective that the officers bring,” Flores-Mills said.

Ryder emphasized that the liaison officers only show up when invited. “I don’t want them to kind of just roll up at the clubs,” he said.

Despite the turnover each year in each clubs’ officer corps, Flores-Mills said she hopes that the program will “become a little more deeply embedded” each year.

“It is a challenge,” Ryder said. “But, at the same time, it’s not new to us,” he added, explaining that the entire student body turns over every four years anyway.

Flores-Mills added that she hopes the program can expand to other club-run events, perhaps with officers attending roundtable lectures or community service events run by the clubs.

“It’s really great that we have this program set up because it’s going to further the positive relationship that should be developed between the students and Public Safety,” Lopez said.

“Whereas a lot of students see the police with fear or are intimidated by them, we want people to see Public Safety as people here to help us and protect us,” he added.

The presidents of Charter Club, Cloister Inn, Colonial Club, Cottage Club, Ivy Club and Tower Club did not respond to a request for comment. Their liaisons are Patrol Officer Jason Vacirca, Patrol Officer Ali Ali, Patrol Officer Paul Krzewinski, Sergeant John Barbour, Patrol Officer David Ziegler and Lieutenant William Kugel, respectively.

As for the newly reopening Cannon Dial Elm Club, Ryder said he has discussed rolling out the program with a member of its board.