The Famuan

Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: Opinions

On entering the office of Henry Kirby, Dean of Students and Associate Vice President, he welcomed me with open arms after seeing that I had come to him with an issue involving the University.

After mentioning weed being smoked on campus he quickly gave me his undivided attention.

"This is very disturbing," Kirby said. "I would expect for any student on campus to conform to the student code of conduct."

Although pleased by Kirby's concern about the matter, I was disappointed because I'd been seeing this since the latter part of January.

"It's illegal and not supposed to be on this campus," Kirby said. "Now that I'm aware of this I will inform the police to patrol. And those who are breaking the law will be properly dealt with."

I was amazed at how serious he was taking the situation, but it wasn't clear to me why he had been ignorant to the illegal activity.

It was being conducted on a street that goes through Florida A&M University's campus.

Is FAMU keeping its students safe? If there can be illegal activity in front of the café, then surely robbery and many other crimes that happen on campus will continue.

James Bland, Student body Vice President, said he recommends surveillance cameras for the downstairs café and proper ID checks during late hours. He said the students aren't always the ones causing problems at the University.

"Students should have Rattler cards on them whenever they are on campus," Bland said.

That's nice Bland, but how realistic is this idea?

Bland also suggested that placing police officers around the café during times of heavy traffic. In the same sentence, he also said the University is "short staffed."

So what is the solution?

I didn't forget about the Sodexho employee that warned the students they were in danger of being caught smoking weed.

Bland said job screenings should improve for not only cafeteria staff but also University wide officials. Kirby agreed with Bland, but hoped employees weren't involved in the illegal activity.

"I would certainly hope that Sodexho Company doesn't employ individuals that will contribute to a problem on this University," Kirby added.

Did I expect FAMU to have a solution to a pertinent illegal problem on campus in a decent amount of time? Again FAMU proves 'excellence with NO caring.'



This is part 2 of a 2-part series.

Josh King is a senior magazine production student from Atlanta. He can reached at joshuaking85@yahoo.com.