On June 10, Smith and Mount Holyoke announced that after 10 years of having a combined force, the two campus police departments will be operating independently of each other effective July 1, 2020.
“In recent years, we have increasingly recognized the need to develop approaches to campus policing that are tailored to the specific needs of our own campus,” wrote David DeSwert, interim vice president for Finance and Administration, in an email to the Smith College community June 10.
This change follows the spring 2019 protest of Daniel Hect’s hiring as campus chief of police after students discovered that he had liked pro-Trump and anti-immigrant tweets. In a FAQ about Campus Police Leadership, Smith states that Daniel Hect’s employment at Mount Holyoke and Smith “has ended by mutual amicable agreement.”
The change also follows the events of July 31, 2018, when an employee called campus police on a Black student who was studying in a residence hall. In a FAQ on Smith’s website, the college states that the separation of the Mount Holyoke and Smith police departments is not “a response to any specific event.”
In a Sept. 16 email, DeSwert announced the details of an ad hoc Campus Safety Advisory Group (CSAG). President McCartney and the SGA, consulted by the Dean of Students, appointed the 13 members of the safety group, which consists of students, staff and faculty and is chaired by DeSwert. It is intended to “shape and guide the creation of a new public safety model at smith,” DeSwert wrote. Open forums are to be held in the Campus Center Carroll Room on Tuesday, October 8, from 4 to 5 p.m.; on Wednesday, October 9, from 7 to 8 p.m.; and on Thursday, October 10, from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. Meetings with students, employee governance groups and affinity groups are also being scheduled.
DeSwert also wrote in the email that the college had engaged D. Stafford and Associates, a consulting firm specializing in campus safety and security, to advise the college on implementing a new public safety model by July 1, 2020. Debra Duncan, a member of the firm, will serve as the lead consultant on campus and as the interim campus safety director.
The Sophian spoke with Jim Gray, associate vice president for Facilities and Operations, and Sam Masinter, interim vice president of Public Affairs, about what a new and independent Smith College police department is expected to look like. Both Gray and Masinter are involved in the formation and organization of CSAG, which, according to Gray, is intended to “figure out what our department needs to look like.”
“The campus safety advisory committee that was in the works last year will become moot now that the Mount Holyoke and Smith College departments will no longer be operating as a joint one,” explained Gray.
Gray said he looks forward to a department that can be more focused on the needs of Smith and explained that there are elements of having a joint department that are structurally disadvantageous. One example he gave was that the call center is located at Mount Holyoke, where they don’t really know the layout of Smith. Masinter added that the joint department results in officers who have to juggle the needs of two separate communities.
“The changes will be heavily informed by community outreach. We want the community to tell us,” Gray said. The advisory group, he said, will be focused on “building a new program” rather than “making changes to existing campus police.”
“We’re not assuming anything going into this,” Masinter added. “We need a lot of input.”
The advisory group will decide what to suggest to President McCartney during the structuring of the new Smith-specific department. Gray noted that in addition to the open forums and the advisory group, students will have “opportunities for anonymous input.”
“Students can also offer their feedback to the consultants,” Gray said, “and I will offer my time to any student who wants to meet with me.”
When addressing the issue of how to make sure students feel safe following recent events, Gray said that there would be “listening sessions with particular groups of students who may be inclined to give us feedback [when they are] with people who identify similarly to them.”
Due to the formation of an all new department, Smith will be doing “quite a bit of hiring,” Gray said. “Students will have a great deal of involvement in shaping the overall structure of the new department, but involvement in hiring will be left to professionals.”
A separate committee has been designated to finding a new campus police leader, who will be appointed once the Smith department becomes independent. Gray and Masinter said that the College is looking at structuring things differently.
“We do know that there are different models besides a ‘police department,’” said Gray.
“We’re calling it the ‘leader of our campus safety department,’ rather than ‘police chief,’” Masinter said. The difference between these roles was not made clear.
The formation of Smith’s independent department is still in the early stages, and “changes will become more visible in the runup to 2020,” said Gray. While this is the beginning of a restructuring, they expect changes to be continually made. “We want to signal that this is an ongoing conversation,” said Masinter.
