Greetings:
These weeks mark the beginning of another academic year.
Students are arriving at campuses, most with similar hopes as their parents as being an opportunity to build a bright future.
Many come with a secondary objective--party time.
In CompelledToAct there is a sad listing of recent deaths on or near campus.
The list was started last spring when the web was used to locate prior tragedies and news alerts to inform me of those more recent.
Once the alerts began arriving, I was stuck by their frequency, and the sad listing grew week by week and even day by day.
Currently the separate listing for fall 2007 is mostly blank. However, inevitably and sadly it will expand. Who in anticipation of a bright future will have the opportunity cut short? Already, one fatality at Bradley University has been added. Sheridan Dahlquist was preparing for the fall soccer season when tragedy stuck as result of a teammate’s prank after a night of drinking.
As with other tragedies, a review is necessary of the university and team rules related to alcohol and how strictly those rules were enforced. Did tragedy strike dispute the exercise of all reasonable efforts to limit control such behavior? This is the base question which requires addressing in all such tragedies as we call for colleges and universities to be accountable for student safety.
CompelledToAct.com has been active since early July. Given that I am a novice in website development, notice was made of many inadequacies as to ease of use. This morning, changes were made which hopefully enhances the accessibility.
As always, comments are appreciated either through this blog or email to
info@compelledtoact.com
Stephen Guest
