Freshman Year 2007

Four years ago I left high school and dreaded my first year in college. It is funny how things changed. My freshman year I would go home at least once or twice each month. By sophomore year I would go home every other month, until eventually I didn't even go home long on holidays my senior year.

I have so many great memories from all four years in college. Here are some of them from my freshman year.

One of the most memorable is the fire alarms. We had a record-breaking semester with more than 40 fire alarms. Most of them were around 3 in the morning. We had one real fire. Another time the building flooded. During one alarm we went to Waffle House and I asked an employee if our fire alarms helped their business to which she responded, "You're going to pull our fire alarm?"

In another experience, my friends and I were sitting in the cafeteria having breakfast on a weekend morning. It was a day after a shooting on campus. Derrick gets a phone call saying "Go outside the cafeteria and accept a package from the man in red and no one gets shot." After several calls they called the number back to see who it was. Later the police came in and we filed a report. The police answered the next time they called, "If you know whats good for you, you will quit calling," the caller said. UPD responded, "This is the police" and the caller hung up. Eventually the number was traced and a friend knew who it was-- his coworker...

University Police Department (UPD)

As students we take a lot of things for granted. Just think how inconvenient it is when we come back from a break and  find the cafeteria is closed. Or when we need something and an office is closed. There is one group of people who remain on campus 24/7 including holidays and breaks. They are the University Police Department.

They often receive so many complaints about tickets or other aspects of their job. But they are here for us. A few weeks ago there was a bomb threat in the library. Within minutes, they had a text message alert out to all of the Emergency Alert System subscribers telling them to avoid the library.

At about 1 a.m. in the morning on Friday they sent another message telling students to stay in their rooms because there had been a shooting on campus. They sent another message about 6:30 a.m. telling students they could go about their normal schedule. I read them both after I woke up, but even though a lot of people were sleeping they still sent the message.

Along with protecting students in these life-threatening situations they also provide other services. When we have car trouble they are there to try and help. When something is stolen we can file a report. They patrol campus for traffic violations, and frequently pull over drunk drivers, making this a safer campus to walk on and to drive on. They walk through the dorms to make sure things are in order.

I even had a police officer banging on my door one afternoon who told me the door was standing wide open. They are here to protect us and help us. They are working hard, even when every other office on campus is closed. They often receive more criticism than thanks. Personally, I think they are doing a great job.

Keep up the good work UPD and thank you for your service to this campus and community.

(Students who are not signed up for the EAS can do so on the university police website: http://police.astate.edu.

Bomb Threat

As most people at ASU heard at some point today, there was a bomb threat at our library. The police department used the emergency alert system promptly to warn students to stay clear of the building. I had friends in the building at the time and so I asked if they pulled the fire alarms to get everyone out or what. He told me they used the PA system. I went on Facebook and found a lot of status updates. I got probably 10 text messages within 10 minutes from friends. A little excitement around here I guess.

They ended up having to cancel some classes. The library remains closed until tomorrow morning. All because (most likely) a prank. A stupid prank.  A news report in The Herald says someone found a piece of paper on the first floor that had the threat on it. Who knows how long it was there. Again I am sure it is a joke, but they have to take these things seriously. Hopefully they can find the person behind it.

A little humor came from The Herald, for which I am a staff writer. The breaking news story finally showed up about 5 hours later on the website. The headline reads something like, "Bomb threat evacuates library, adjacent building." <-- Oh really? The bomb threat evacuated? How interesting. I figured the people would evacuate.

A lot of people are behind because of canceled classes, after already missing several days previously in the semester because of snow. I know I am needing some books to work on a research paper. That got delayed another day. But there is always tomorrow and a late night in the library. Those tend to happen quite frequently here.