MassArt students demand campus cops stay unarmed
Petition pleads with Trustees to vote against measure
Students at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, or MassArt, are demanding the school’s Board of Trustees vote against a measure to arm its campus police officers.
Boston police already patrol the area and some students say there isn’t a need for another set of armed officers.
“Boston police is just a few minutes away and they’re well-equipped to handle situations,” said Camila Bohan Insaurralde, a MassArt junior and organizer of Students Against Arming. “We just don’t want a militarized presence when we go to classes.”
Insaurralde said more than 550 students and community members have signed on to the petition demanding the Trustees vote against the measure.
A factor that the college said played a role in the Work Group’s recommendation to arm its police officers include high turnover rates within the force.
“Most of the resignation letters mention the lack of arming as the #1 concern,” MassArt said in a 2018 campus safety report obtained by the Herald. “A great deal of money and time is lost to outfitting and training officers, only to have them resign.”
School administrators say that campus police officers are knowledgeable with the buildings, faculty, students and culture. Furthermore, they argue that all of the officers are experienced with firearms and are sworn, academy trained, and have the same authority as municipal police agencies.
The topic of arming officers spilled over at a Board of Trustees meeting on Tues- day.
“MassArt Board of Trustees, we will not be silenced. When the time comes, you must vote in the interest of the community and vote against arming campus officers with lethal weapons,” a student said at the meeting.
“The board is taking all perspectives and facts into consideration and has expressed appreciation of our students’ commitment to making their voices heard,” said MassArt spokeswoman Ellen Carr, adding that the Trustees will vote on the measure in February.
However, students say that the forum dates and times were “inaccessible … often which were held during class times and subsequently had low turnout.”
The school’s 2018 Clery Act Report — a federal poli- cy mandating colleges and universities that receive federal funding to disclose crime statistics — shows an extremely low rate of escalated violence on campus between 2015 and 2017. There were no aggravated assaults, sex offenses, robberies, and burglaries reported to the school in 2017.
Stephanie Houten, a recent MassArt graduate, said that she had been following this topic two years ago and said that the school is prioritizing the desires of the campus police officers before the safety needs of the community. She said students are already fearful of being harassed or profiled by police officers, and giving them guns will “only make it worse.”
MassArt is located within a cluster of other schools and universities. Boston Latin School, Simmons University, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Science, and Wentworth Institute of Technology are within walking distance.
MassArt enrolled about 2,070 students in fall 2017, according to the school.