Be wary of UO having its own police

5/25/2011: Kitzhaber signed the UO Police bill, SB405, Thursday. A letter to the editor in the RG raises a problem with the UO Police legislation that I hadn’t considered:

Be wary of UO having its own police

I have no official affiliation with the University of Oregon but I would like to present my opposing viewpoint to the UO having their own police force.

I consider myself a kind of refugee from another state. In my previous state I was a student and employee at the local university. I was maliciously attacked by a university supervisor while working. This supervisor had a history of harassment, sexual harassment and retaliation against me. He also had friends in the university administration and was slated for promotion.

After being attacked by this supervisor (who threw an object at me that whistled by my head) I was stunned. Terrified, I went to the university police, thinking I was doing the right thing by reporting this perpetrator.

The university police spoke to administrators and then dropped my complaint. They practically laughed in my face, adding insult to injury. I then went to the city police and told them about my experience with the university police. The city police told me the university police were a separate entity answering to no one except the university administration.

If the UO has its own police, will they just be the university administration’s puppet? UO students and employees should seriously consider that possibility. I would not want any law-abiding citizen to go through what I went through with university police.

Diane Van Orden

And Stefan Verbano has a story on Amelie Rousseau’s talk to the UO City Club, which includes a bit on the police plan, and a lot of support for letting Dr. Pernsteiner run the show regarding higher ed restructuring.