President Repollet Addresses Student Concerns Regarding Safety at First in Person Town Hall Meeting

By Chelsey Jaipersaud | Posted by December 20, 2021

President Lamont Repollet discussed important security measures and solutions to enhance the safety around the university in light of the recent sexual assault incident during the first in person Town Hall meeting since the start of the pandemic.

The meeting, held on November 22, was the first town hall that incorporated speakers throughout several different departments of the university to go more in-depth on concerns that were addressed by students.

In the first week of November, there were sexual assault allegations made by one student on Instagram, which eventually led to the outpouring of other students with similar experiences.

“We are still doing internal investigations, however, I want to make it very clear that we take sexual harassment, sexual assault very seriously,” Dr. Repollet said. “We don’t comment on social media for the purpose of the process, but I want to just make it very clear we take it very seriously.”

Two weeks ago, President Repollet and his team met with campus police to discuss the concerns about safety on campus. Some of the major concerns mentioned was lighting and visibility for the Kean University police department to be placed around areas not only outside, but in academic buildings as well.

“We’re going to have new lighting put on, we talked about the community engagement with police officers and having them do a park walk and talk,” Director of Public Safety Anthony Monticello said.

Monticello explained a park walk and talk is when university police park their vehicles and they may be seen at different locations walking on campus. They’ll be walking the campus and working in designated zones every day. If a student feels uncomfortable walking alone at night, the police will be there to escort them.

“The reason why I have them in specific zones is so that they get to know students by name,” Monticello said.

Monticello further discussed the idea of student workers working for the police department and placing them in different buildings, along with the implementation of three different safety apps, and that President Repollet and his team will be testing them alongside the police department.

Monticello emphasized that students should not be afraid to come to the police and report anything they see that might seem or feel unusual.

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion will be hosting an event that will involve a discussion between students and the police. They are looking to sit down with the Kean community and try to understand student expectations regarding adequate security.

“Our overall goal is just to make sure that there is a security posture on campus that everybody’s comfortable with and we can contribute to your health and welfare in the best way possible,” Associate Director for Public Safety Jerome Hatfield said.

The president and his staff are aware that they can not prevent everything from happening, but they will be making advancements to prevent future incidents and reduce the risks. 

“I need to make sure that you feel safe, so we’re going to increase lighting on campus, we’re going to get a reader that will read license plates as you enter this campus,” Dr. Repollet said.

Dr. Repollet said that he will ensure that the police department does a great job of community policing.

Students of the fine arts school addressed concerns about Vaughn Eames and the conditions of the building. They explained that there are broken sinks and leaks that can ruin the work that students spend a lot of time on.

Maria Astudillo, who is minoring in fine arts, explained that she sees new buildings for those majoring in business and STEM and she feels as though the university did not care about those in fine arts. These were problems that have been addressed in the past, but no changes have been made according to Astudillo.

“We appreciate you bringing to our attention the lag time so that we know that’s something to follow up on because if it’s something that we should’ve done better and wasn’t something outside of our control then that’s something I want to work on,” Senior Vice President for planning Felice Vazquez said.

Dr. Repollet, along with Vazquez said that they care about the facilities and the concerns mentioned would be something they have to further look into, but they will have answers within 48 hours that can be found on Kean’s official website. This goes for all concerns including vaccinations and the mask mandate given at the meeting. 

“I promise you, we will continue to listen to you and do better,” Dr. Repollet said. “Please know that we are here for you.”

---