Potential bill could keep 'disruptive' people away from campus

The U is in the process of creating a bill that would allow the U Police Department to keep disruptive persons away from the University for an extended period of time.

U Police Chief Scott Folsom said a bill of this kind would provide a solution to a problem continually plaguing campus police.

“There have been a number of people on campus that cause disturbances,” he said. “It has become problematic. We have been struggling to find a solution to properly handle them.”

Utah law gives permission to the U and other public institutions to order disruptive persons off the grounds. But under the same law, people removed from campus can return 72 hours later. Utah law defines such disturbances as “any act which interferes with the peaceful conduct of the activities of a campus or facility.”

Folsom said 72 hours is not long enough because such people repeatedly come back to the U and again disrupt university operations. But under the law, U Police are helpless to do anything but ask these people to leave again.

The idea behind the bill is to extend the length of time police can keep away people that stop or hurt the learning process or hazard the safety of staff, students and faculty, said Kim Wirthlin, vice president of government relations.

Wirthlin said the U’s general council is establishing the wording of the bill and what other types of laws exist regulating removal from campuses.

She said the U would then determine which legislator would sponsor the bill and whether or not the bill would be passed by the Utah Legislature.

“We are looking right now at what we can do,” Wirthlin said. “We want to see how a bill lines up to rules that already exist.”

General council could determine that such a bill is not legally possible or that another rule or regulation is already in place. In that case, the bill would not be created or sponsored.

The current sets of laws were enacted in 1973 and need to be updated, not changed, Folsom said.

“We want to build upon what is already there,” he said. “Safety and education is paramount for us.”

Caty Allred, a junior in social work, said she would like to see the U have more control over who comes on the campus.

“There are times when I am on campus late at night and there are strange people around,” she said. “It makes me nervous to just go from my class to my car.”

But David Miller, a junior in pre-medicine, feels that because the U is a public institution anyone should be able to be on campus, as long as they aren’t dangerous.

“I think sometimes campus police overreacts,” he said. “It is one thing to be safe and keep criminals off campus, but it is another thing to keep protestors away.”

j.layton@chronicle.utah.edu

2 comments

Jeff

Wed Feb 4 2009 19:53

I agree with Richard, the article doesn't provide an example. How about the freshman girls that come to class half naked sometimes, which blows my mind that they do it even in winter, that's a disturbance of the learning process, albeit mostly welcome.

Richard

Wed Feb 4 2009 16:40

I'd like to know exactly who are tese disruptive people? The crazy homeless? Animal rights nuts? Who?

And what is disruptive behavior?

I really wonder if this requires a new law. It seems strange to me that a bastion of academic freedom has supported laws to restrict free speech by protesters (even if they are 'effin obnoxious) and to keep "disruptive" people off campus.

This is America, not Afghanistan.

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