Campus Culpability: Who Should Keep Colleges Safe?

WAMU 88.5

Published January 23, 2020 at 9:06 AM CST

American universities can provide refuge for scholars who have been persecuted in other countries.

In 2015, a Boston University student was assaulted in her dorm room. The perpetrator was an unescorted visitor on campus. Her door was allegedly unlocked. Now she’s suing the school for not protecting her.

In another case, Massachusetts’s highest court ruled in 2018 that M.I.T. could not be held responsible for the 2009 suicide of one of its students on campus. The court ruled that “the age of ‘in loco parentis,’” where universities stand in place of parents, is long over.

Who is ultimately responsible for college security? Where does a college’s liability begin and end when crimes or suicides happen on campus?

Produced by Haili Blassingame.

GUESTS

Naba Khan, Contributor, Boston Globe. @nabakkhan

John Vinson, President, the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. @jnvinson7

Jeffrey Beeler, Attorney, Heinlein Beeler Mingace & Heineman, P.C.

For more, visit https://the1a.org.