Opinion
Unexplained events on campus cause feelings of unease
October 24, 2014
Following last week’s shooting threat on campus, I think it is safe to say a lot of unusual circumstances have been taking place.
Not only was there the threat, leaving students in their dorms instead of their classrooms, but there have also been other crimes and even unannounced construction. In my four years as a UW-River Falls student, this is my first time seeing all this unusual activity at once, so who knows if it will happen again. Is there an underlying theme surrounding these events? Are we sure we can avoid it for the rest of our college careers?
Leading up to the day of the threat, there had been crime reports flooding in about professors’ keys or other important items being stolen. It is one thing for it to happen once, but it is another thing for it to happen continuously, to multiple different professors. It led many students to believe that it had something to do with the threat and further convinced them that it would be carried out on Wednesday. I, too, had these suspicions. Not much more was said about these thefts as one week ended and a new one began. For a lot of people, the culprit of these events will remain a mystery.
Another suspicious event that happened leading up to the threats involved someone, presumably a student, dressed up in a clown suit. Numerous complaints from students had addressed this, saying he or she would walk up and knock on first floor windows of residence halls. Because Halloween is approaching, this may seem like a harmless prank. However, students also believe the culprit pulled this prank because of the threat, and they were not all too thrilled about it. While very few people likely know the identity of this culprit, it seems that the pranks have slowed down or stopped completely and students have gotten back to normal.
Not so suspicious, or even related to last week’s threat, is the construction outside of KFA. Where did that come from? Of course they are probably doing something like fixing pipes, but why did it come without a warning? How long is it going to take? It is likely a necessary task, but because many of the sidewalks are blocked, we are left taking the scenic route just to the University Center in order to avoid the trenches. I wish we will figure out what is going on in the coming days. It would be helpful to find out how long it will be before we can use the sidewalks again; that is, without going out of our way.
Many of these suspicious or unusual activities went unannounced and heightened our fears about last week’s threat. Luckily, even with increased security, nothing happened and everyone remained unharmed. This is an event that we can finally put behind us as we progress in our college careers. But, at the same time, the threat and the unusual events surrounding it are events that we will one day look back on and remember clear as day.
Cristin Dempsey is an English major and music minor from Eagan, Minn. She enjoys writing, playing the flute and swimming. After college she would like to pursue a career as an editor.