Since Greenville Tech opened itsstudent housing in September, six students have been kicked out because of criminal violations ranging from drug and alcohol violations to assault.
And police have been called to the student apartment complex to investigate 29 incidents, including 18during the first six weeks of 2007.
Because the addition of student housingnow puts people on campus 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week, thecollege has hired a police chief and is converting its security staffto a police department.
Bobby Welborn, a longtime Spartanburgcity cop who spent the last three years as the police chief at theUniversity of South Carolina Upstate, has been hired as the interimTech police chief.
“I’d be concerned if there weren’tany reports,” Welborn said. “I’m smart enough to know thatstuff goes on, on a college campus. I’m smart enough to know thatthis isn’t a dry campus, a clean campus.”
Welborn said the incidents reported atthe student housing complex were typical of things that would happenat other apartment complexes.
A fight was reported between two womenwho were dating the same man. Another woman was hit after she triedto break up with her boyfriend.
A visitor who police discoveredpounding on an apartment door at 5:30 a.m. was found to possess anopen beer and marijuana. A loaded gun was found in his car.
Another visitor who had broken a doorhandle to one apartment tried to run from police, saying,
“Iain’t gonna go to no damn jail.” After a brief scuffle, officersdiscovered five bags of marijuana and a bag of crack in his boot. Theman was charged with possession of drugs with intent to distribute.
“We haven’t really had any seriousproblems on campus,” said Curtis Harkness, Greenville Tech’s vicepresident for administration and diversity.
Greenville Tech Housing DirectorCassandra Chambers said the situation is no different than
whatother schools with residential facilities experience at the start ofeach school year or new semester as new students adjust to the rules.Greenville Tech’s four student apartment buildings opened at fourdifferent times, the first on Sept. 8 and the last on Jan. 6.
“Instead of having it one time, wehad it four times,” she said.
There are 321 students in theresidential apartments, she said. The capacity is 440.
Clemson University, with 5,837 studentsin university housing, has kicked out one person for criminalactivity since the school year began.
Welborn said changing from campussecurity to a campus police department should help stem the number oftimes local police are called to the campus.
Different perception
“It gives a different perception whenyou have blue lights on top instead of campus security on the door,”Welborn said. “Hopefully, that will be a deterrent for crime.”
Having its own police department willalso help students who are caught on minor violations, he said.
“We were all young and dumb at thatage,” he said. “And if we had gotten caught, some wouldn’t bein the positions we’re in now. Even getting a parking ticket oncampus can affect a person’s ability to get high-level securityclearance.”
Welborn said an underage student whogets caught with a beer now is arrested by city police officers
andhas to go to court.
“I’d hate for them to use theirchance at pretrial intervention up for having a beer in their hand,”he said. “If we have our own system on campus, we have anotheravenue to deal with minor things. We don’t necessarily have to goto court.”
But Welborn said that more seriousviolations would go through the court system.
Certified officers
Greenville Tech has seven certifiedpolice officers for all four campuses, Welborn said. He wants toincrease that to 16-to-18 over the next few years. The departmentwould still use some security officers who would help lock gates.
Greenville Tech has an enrollment ofabout 14,000.
Welborn said he is looking at buyingpatrol cars and uniforms. Paperwork is being processed by the StateLaw Enforcement Division to get the department a law enforcementagency reporting number.
The public safety budget for this yearis $616,668.
Welborn said he expects the conversionto cost “a couple hundred thousand dollars.”
There are also plans to add cameras andemergency phones on campus, Harkness said.
Contact Cindy Landrum at 679-1237 orclandrum@greenvillejournal.com.
