November 25,1997

The Cadre

The continuing saga of the blue poles

UPEI's security system continues to malfunction

By Colin Bassett

UPEI students that the blue

poles security system has had its problems with reliabil- ity in the past. Students have complained that the response time is usually drastically inef- ficient, or that in some cases, there isn’t even any response at all.

“Admittedly, there have been problems in the past,” said Campus Police Officer, Wayne Squarebrigges. “How- ever, they were purely me- chanical.”

The department said that the problem developed be-

I is not a secret among

cause it was previously not mandatory to check the poles ona regular basis. But after an experiment conducted on No- vember 2nd by several con- cerned nursing students re- vealed problems with the poles, the campus police must now check the poles every day. This means that students should now expect to see of- ficers activating the poles daily on campus.

“Our department is glad that what occurred with the nursing students was not an actual incident.” said Squarebrigges. “We are grate- ful for the effort that the nurs- ing students took in bringing our attention to the problems of the blue pole system.”

He also added, “Safety and security are not only the responsibility of our depart- ment, but should also be shared with the university community as a whole. We need the input from concerned students, fac- ulty, and staff in making our university as safe as possi- ble.”

Students who still ques- tion the dependability of the poles can take comfort in knowing that the Campus Se- curity Department is currently under a Risk Management Review by an independent company from Halifax.

Drag pageant sparks a furor at the

By Kate Archibaid-Cross

PETERBOROUGH (CUP)- Comments made at the Miss Harvest Weekend a eant, which is part of the Fall College Weekend, hosted by Trent University’s C i Col earlier this month

is a

A group of contestants, including residence don Kevin aakeher Meteo

y that one of their pet peeves was “men who py tout stand that no means yes, yes,

been dri

inhibitions and [were] horny as hell.”

angry response dents and administrators at Trent.

“Joking about sexual as- sault is not [and] joki about child abuse is i not funny,” Theresa Mc

a student who attended the

event, said. Sie,

ith, acti i- dent of Trent ahaa tars the activities at the pageant were

HOT unacceptable.

I}t is in the very nature of the university that there should be respect... for all mem- bers of the university [and these] events are not consistent

Martin Boyne, acting mas- ter of the college, says the com- ments were inexcusable and he plans to take some form of action.

Dan Gunn and Alex Thompson, co-chairs of the fall festival, defended the pageant in a written response to their campus

“The intent of the (pag-

Trent University campus

eant] is pot feaen sexual ae otypes pageants placing it on a stage and holding it up for ridicule. It is not to Se en ere “At the time we found the comments] humorous; wever, when taken out of context, we can see how it would be offensive. Perhaps we gave university students too much credit, but we assumed they understood this was in- Fiabe pad oehahon: organizers of this event for the last 10 years.” Andrea Norquay co-co- rent Wom-

iti personally target- ng Thompson and Gunn for their role in the pageant has on the Trent campus, and that has also been con- demned. “It seems to us that the same people who wave around licies on human rights and [oeenend as inherent protec- tion for the community feel threatening and harassing us is weer It — es Be massive hypocrisy of spec i groups at Trent. Our

feeli i

interest involvement in the actual pag-

eant was to solicit participants and then run the aed a lights, we did not read or write the bi ies of the contest- ants,” wrote Gunn and Thompson.