Although students see the Whitman Security staff on a daily basis, few get to know the workers who are on the job into the early hours of the morning.
When the night staff is on the clock, the Security Office becomes the command center of Whitman––it fields calls that can range from students asking to be let in to locked buildings to any reports of suspicious activity on campus.
Typical weekday night shifts start at 10 p.m., when many of the security officers and student escorts are still on campus. After 1 a.m., the officer on duty is on his or her own until other staff members return at 8 a.m. the next morning.
During this period, the night staff takes all student calls. The frequency and nature of these calls varies greatly from night to night, but they have proven to be one of the most interesting parts of the job.
“I got a call from a student about somebody outside on the street making noise, so I went and there were two drunk guys, non-students, just talking to each other in the middle of the street. I asked them to leave campus and they did so,” said Security Officer Gabe Kiefel. “That couldn’t have been replicated anywhere else. It was a very strange interaction.”
Another active branch of Whitman night security are the Yellow Jackets: students employed to patrol and escort around campus. Yellow Jackets provide this service from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., available at times when people might feel uncomfortable on their own.
Senior Sam Mehoke, who has been a Yellow Jacket since his first year at Whitman, elaborates on the importance of his post.
“The main authoritative power of this service is a security presence on the campus,” said Mehoke. “The escort services, when not escorting, make their rounds about the campus and dorms and radio in abnormal activity or suspicious persons. By having a security presence around campus and in living spaces the escort service provides a sense of security to students by students who are familiar with the campus beat.”
This student-to-student connection allows the Security Office to become more accessible in case a student has a legitimate concern. Whereas an actual security officer might be intimidating, a peer authority figure puts a friendly, familiar face on authority. Mehoke notes that sometimes even the peer security service can be slightly intimidating.
“In the years past when the Yellow Jacket service actually wore designating yellow jackets, students who were unfamiliar with the service would generally disperse from the halls and avoid us until either a friend or an upperclassman would greet us warmly,” said Mehoke. “It is important for the student body to know that they can chat [with] and rely on their friendly neighborhood escort service.”
When concerns do arise, the Security Office is an intermediary for the entire college. They collaborate with various administrative departments as well as the local authorities.
“We contract through Walla Walla Electric and the first thing they do is call us. If there’s a burglary alarm that goes off, we check it out while the police department is on their way. We expedite those interactions,” said Kiefel.
Whether they are responding to tripped alarms or walking students from the library to their residence halls, the security staff is there for students.
“When nobody else is on campus, we deal with everything that goes wrong or even things that go right. You name it and that’s what we respond to,” said Kiefel.
