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Generally, having 100% of something is considered a good thing-100% on a test, 100% juice, 100% recycled materials used. However, at Oxy we have very few 100%’s, which is a good thing in my opinion. What if we had 100% female professors, 100% white student body, or 100% in-state students? At a school where not having 100% of something is so important, why do we have a campus security force consisting of 100% men?
I appreciate the work that ‘campo’ does on our campus. I know that they work hard patrolling and helping that student who was trapped in the elevator and getting over-zealous partiers to the hospital. But I’ve wondered for a long time why the school does not have any female officers.
In this country women make up about 13% of the police force as far as I can find, and in a study conducted by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, women are just as capable as men to be officers.
In addition, other colleges and universities, such as Sweet Briar College and MIT, have female campus police officers.I believe that adding women to the force would be beneficial to the college. At MIT, their female campus police officers are specially trained in handling rape cases, and at the University of Rhode Island female officers are always available for female students who are dealing with sexual harassment or assault. Of course we never want to have a situation where this occurs at our school, but to pretend like it never happens and to not be prepared with proper staff is ignorant.
Also, I have never once heard anyone bring up this topic at Occidental during my almost two years here. I know that the school considers itself to be liberal and progressive, and I know that the students here believe we are open-minded and diverse.
Therefore, why hasn’t anyone brought this up? Is it that we believe that being an officer (be it campus or other) is a job that only men can perform? I am 100% certain that this is not true and that female campus police officers should be employed by the college.
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