President Sarah Bolton addressed concerns and questions surrounding the new private security detail at Memorial Hall in a campus-wide email sent Wednesday morning.
The email, titled “Security at Memorial Last Night,” states “yesterday, [Security First] was asked to provide a security officer to help the on-duty Whitman Security staff. The sole role the staff from the outside company were instructed to undertake was to watch Mem and call Whitman Campus Security if they observed vandalism or other concerns taking place.”
Bolton also clarified that chalking on and around the steps of Mem is not considered vandalism. Last night, however, when the only actions taking place by student protesters was chalking, Whitman Security Officers demanded student ID’s and recorded students with their devices. It is unclear why security took these measures in light of Bolton’s email.
Bolton’s email did not address whether the private security force carried weapons. As The Wire reported, a guard stationed at Mem had what appeared to be a weapon holstered on his hip. When asked, the guard declined to comment on what the object holstered on his hip was.
In the email, Bolton apologized for “bringing in this contract company to assist without communicating about it to the campus in advance, and for the fear that the unexpected presence of outside security may have caused to members of our community.”