By Raul Jaime
A nother month is gone and, as usual, some interesting stories came from the Campus Security office.
One notable incident was the Feb. 4 Board of Governors meeting where tuition was raised.
"Numerous student opponents of a tuition increase were in attendance and disrupted the meeting momentarily," read the Campus Security monthly report for February. There were many differences between this year’s protest and the one in 1999, when a large number of students attended a rally at McMahon stadium. This year’s protest, although smaller in size, generated a little more conflict.
"The protest ended up inside the building," said Fritz, adding that the incident wasn’t major and nobody was arrested or hurt.
February didn’t follow the normal trend for weekday incidents. Usually, Thursdays and Fridays are the days when most trouble is reported. This February, Campus Security was busier on Tuesdays than any other day of the week.
Campus Security staff got some lessons from the big boys last month as well. The US Deputy Secretary of Defence John J. Hamre visited the U of C Feb. 18. Security was mostly in the hands of the US Secret Service and the rcmp, but Campus Security was on alert, just in case.
Also in February, a fight almost broke out at the Campus Cove.
"Officers responded and found that one of the males from the first group had an 18" machete," said the monthly report. The officers later found the offender hiding in a bush; he was arrested and charged by city police.
"This incident is not common," said Fritz. "The guy was about 16 years of age and he was not a student here."
Campus Security also investigated the disappearance of 200 research rodents from the Health Sciences loading dock.
"The 200 rats were delivered to the Health Science Centre and left unattended," said Fritz. "A worker placed the container into the garbage bin."