Some student groups have raised concerns that security policies for on-campus events disproportionately affect events hosted by clubs catering to minority students.
Junior Carolina Ramirez, vice president of the Caribbean Club, last week told the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate that events held by Africana and Latino culture groups generally feature metal detectors, unnecessarily large police details and the restriction that non-Tufts attendees be college students, creating a threatening atmosphere.
"We have metal detectors, we have the metal detector officers, we have the event staff, and then on top of that, five or six officers," Ramirez said. "All in all, it feels like you're going to an airport or a really bad area."
The requirements, Ramirez said, are almost always applied to on-campus after-parties for annual culture shows put on by the African Students Organization (ASO), the Association of Latin American Students (ALAS), the Caribbean Club and the Pan-African Alliance (PAA).
Ramirez, who is also a member of the Office of Campus Life (OCL) event staff, questioned the existence of a double standard, saying that she has seen many events similar to the after-parties that are spared from security precautions.
"The issue is security and having non-campus individuals come to Tufts," Ramirez said. "But there are numerous events where off-campus people do come, and there are no metal detectors."
Ramirez cited Spring Fling, which permits non-Tufts attendees and is promoted off campus by participating bands but does not have metal detectors.
Associate Director of Campus Life Laura DaRos said the policy does not apply to Spring Fling because although non-college students are admitted, the event is open only to Tufts students and their guests.
Three criteria mandate having metal detectors at an event, according to the OCL Student Organization Resource Guide: "Advertising and admission is open to non-Tufts attendees, and the event is not primarily a performance with a seated audience, or, the nature of the event requires special security arrangements."
Additionally, all guests at such open events "must show a current I.D. from a college or university."
Addressing the seating criteria, Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) Sgt. Joseph Tilton said the nature of an open-floor event could cause security threats.
"It's the actual event itself," Tilton said. "If you have music, dancing, all of those can contribute to frustration in the group."
Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman explained that the policy's criteria concerning non-Tufts attendees is in place because Tufts students are expected to display better behavior than the general population.
"You hope admissions did a good job in looking at who's applying to Tufts, and that their decision of who can be here includes their character," Reitman said.
Reitman pointed to events like the Issam M. Fares Lecture Series, which, though seated, has metal detectors in part because it is widely promoted off campus.
ALAS President Rafael Artiles, a senior, said that this provision in the metal detector policy concerning off-campus attendees, however, tends to apply to after-parties for minority culture shows.
"We rely highly on people coming from off campus to make these events successful, because there's a small number of people [that are part of these cultures] on this campus," Ramirez said.
PAA President Kristen Johnson, a sophomore, said that culture show after-parties are the only opportunities for African-American and Latino students to attend parties with other students sharing their backgrounds.
"There aren't a lot of options for black and Latino students unless you want to go to the [fraternities], which are predominantly white," Johnson said. "If I want to go to a party where there are people of my background, I [usually] have to go off campus."
Ramirez also said that the number of police officers at culture show after-parties is greater than at other events.
"There are too many officers in light of the fact that we already have metal detectors," Ramirez said.
Ramirez said the combination of the metal detectors and large number of officers create the impression of a threatening environment.
"When you have all these officers, they're supposed to be creating a sense of security … but in doing that, they make you feel that it's generally an unsafe place," Ramirez said.
Keith said the number of officers required for an event depends on the expected audience size, whether the event was promoted off campus and the nature of the location.
Events at the Mayer Campus Center, Keith said, require extra officers because there are two entrances and two separate social spaces — Hotung Café and the Commons. He added, however, that the number of officers at after-parties in the campus center is not disproportionate to other events like Winter Bash.
Tilton explained that the outside contractor from which Tufts rents the metal detectors sends its own staff, including two operators per metal detector and a supervisor. These individuals all dress in black as security officers, which could create the impression that there are more police than there actually are.
Tilton added that event planners often overestimate the number of attendees, leading TUPD to assign more officers than the size of the crowd necessitates.
In such cases, Tilton said, TUPD must assume that more guests might come later. "What happens if 300 people do show up now, and I've sent four officers home?" he said.
ASO President Vivian Mbawuike, a sophomore, explained that determining attendance for cultural events or after-parties is difficult precisely because the presence of off-campus attendees makes it difficult to know in advance what is happening at other campuses.
This consideration forces culture groups to overestimate attendance rather than be forced to kick people out, especially those who have traveled to Tufts from elsewhere.
Ramirez said that she has observed similar cultural events at other Boston-area schools that do not have such high security precautions, which make non-Tufts students hesitant to attend events on the Tufts campus.
"We are members of this community, and we should be able to use these spaces without feeling targeted or criminalized, which is something that people do feel," Ramirez said.
Both Mbawuike and Johnson agreed that the extensive security at Tufts makes it difficult to attract outsiders to events because it makes Tufts seem less welcoming.
Reitman, however, said that the metal-detector policy was created in response to a finding that Tufts was the only school in the greater Boston-area that did not use metal detectors at any events.
He emphasized that the four culture groups were not the only ones affected by the metal detector policy.
"I know there's a perception of ‘why those four groups?' But they are not the only groups," Reitman said. "[The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy] hosts some social functions very similar to the Caribbean Club parties, and they have metal detectors too, so it's really the type of event and how it's advertised."
