Western Colorado University’s board of trustees in 2021 heard from students that campus safety was a top priority. One year later, the university is spending thousands from its reserves and soliciting money from the state to install outdoor lighting and cameras.
But faculty say they have safety concerns, too. In the wake of a high-profile criminal harassment case at Western, faculty are forming a task force to investigate Western’s policies, and interim university president Nancy Chisholm said the administration is looking to make changes to its Title IX procedures and employee handbook.
Western professor Pat Magee is chair of the university’s faculty senate. Magee addressed the trustees at their Feb. 3 meeting.
“There has been some concern on campus from numerous faculty members about the campus climate and culture around how certain individuals on campus are being treated, especially generally women and acts of violence against women, possibly sexual harassment issues around women,” he said.
At a faculty senate meeting during the last week of January, the idea arose to form a task force to look into whether changes should be made to Western’s policies, Magee said.
Chisholm attended that faculty senate meeting. She told trustees that she spoke with senate members about some recent “high profile employee relations issues.” She noted that she had issued “a very strong statement” condemning violence and informing the campus community that the institution had followed its policies.
Though Chisholm did not reference Duane Vandenbusche, the only statement resembling her description was one she issued on Dec. 17 regarding Vandenbusche and his guilty plea to a criminal harassment charge on Dec. 15 . As part of Vandenbusche’s plea agreement, he received a deferred sentence and judgement, was required to take a sexual harassment course and to serve 12 months probation. If Vandenbusche abides by the terms of his plea agreement, all charges against him will be dismissed and his record expunged.
The criminal harassment and assault charges brought against him in court stemmed from his slapping a female Western employee on campus in 2020. Vandenbusche submitted his retirement to Chisholm days after his guilty plea. He had been a coach and professor at Western for decades.
The faculty senate met again Monday and voted to create the task force. In particular, the group will focus on the portions of the trustee policy manual that concern sexual misconduct, professional conduct, disciplinary action and grievances and complaints, according to Magee.
Members of the task force “will report back to Senate in an educational way to summarize existing policies and the recommendations for change. The Task Force will make recommendations to Senate, the cabinet and the BoT (board of trustees),” Magee wrote in an email.
Chisholm said there is “potentially an opportunity” for the administration to review its policies, too.
“We will be putting together a group of people to look at both trustee policy manuals, alignment with Title VII, Title IX, which we think we are there, we just maybe will make a couple of adjustments due to some recent changes, and then certainly in the professional handbook, and we will do that collaboratively with a group of folks and see if there is opportunity there,” Chisholm said.
“I think there is concern and really a discussion somewhat around policies, and just making sure that that is not our culture, that’s not who we are, and that’s not what we want to be,” she told trustees.
Lights, cameras, safety
Western has requested state funds, and committed to spend some of its own, to overhaul lighting on campus and to place “safety cameras” in parking lots. The two projects are expected to cost around $2 million.
Following a campus walk through with administrators and students in March 2021, Western submitted a $1.8 million controlled maintenance request to the state for funds to replace interior and exterior lights to “simultaneously address issues of energy efficiency, obsolescence and security,” according to a memo that Vice President of Enrollment and Student Success Abel Chavez shared with trustees. Western has yet to receive word on whether its request had been accepted or denied.
“The aging exterior lighting at Western Colorado University is inefficient and does not meet the security needs of a contemporary college campus,” Chavez noted.
In addition to replacing existing fixtures with LED lights, Western plans to add this year new lights around the University Center, the Newman parking lot, Robidoux and Dolores halls, as well as along Georgia Avenue. Taken together, these improvements address all the concerns raised during the 2021 walk through, and some changes go beyond the recommendations that came from students, Chavez told trustees.
With regards to cameras, Chavez noted that “parking lots, specifically, across the Gunnison community, have experienced occasional strings of vandalism, and while feedback has been wide ranging, the campus community has expressed a clear preference for safety cameras in parking lots.”
Prior cost estimates for new cameras have been between $65,000-135,000. Factoring in inflation, Chavez recommended that trustees authorize up to $200,000 of institutional reserves for cameras so that the university can “swiftly address this.” Trustees voted to authorize the request.
Student Trustee Adam Ingleman said Western’s student government association has contributed $20,000 to equipment and installation of the cameras.
Chavez said there may be ongoing costs to the camera system that have yet to be identified.
“I want to remind folks, we’re not talking surveillance cameras,” said Trustee Jim Pribyl. He said the cameras would create a record, but “we don’t have our own police force monitoring the cameras 24/7, minute by minute. What you have is a videotape that you are going to use after action if there is an incident to do an investigation.”
Chavez said the cameras would, in particular, be deployed around parking lots adjacent to residence halls, the locations identified as having the greatest needs.
(Sam Liebl can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or editor@gunnisontimes.com.)
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