Where the Freshmen At?

• Record amount of freshmen at Cal Poly.
• Safety a top priority among staff.
• Concerns differ between types of residents.

As a class, the freshmen at Cal Poly have already learned a lot.  We’ve figured out how to constantly clog the bike lanes and that mattresses don’t go well with fire.  However all jokes aside,  our class as a whole has truly gone through a lot.  In nearly two quarters, in addition to learning all the material taught in classes, freshmen have also had to adapt to life in the dorms and the issues that come associated with this.  One of these issues being safety, both individually and communally.

Dorm Life

Lassen is one of the North Mountain dorms. Dorms within North Mountain have exterior entrances.

The class of 2017 is the largest freshman class ever enrolled at Cal Poly to date.  Out of the 4,871 first-time freshmen, nearly 98% have opted to live on campus even though the university does not require it.  These freshmen are therefore living in on-campus housing, also called the dorms.  However there are a multitude of different dorms on campus that students live in.

There are Sierra Madre and Yosemite, which are affectionately referred to as the ‘towers’ due to the fact that they are both apart of the connection towers.  Then there are the Living Learning Program dorms, which are known as the ‘red bricks’.  Both the towers and red bricks have the traditional layout of college dorms as persons in each hall share a communal bathroom and live in closer proximity.

North Mountain is another set of dorms where freshmen live.  These dorms are a cross breed of  traditional dorms and apartment rooms.  The last two places where freshman live are suite-style apartments, these being in Cerro Vista and Poly Canyon Village.  Despite the numerous types of on-campus housing, safety for residents remains a top priority in each.

The Peace Keepers

Each residence hall has trained persons in charge of maintaining safety at the dorms.  These being  Coordinators of Student Development (CSD) and Residential/Community Advisers (RA/CA).

Joella Oddi, a third year nutrition major, is the CA at Morro, which is one of the Cerro Vista apartment complexes.

“All the community advisers are available for any safety concerns that any of the residents might have,” she said. “There are two of us on call every night and we do rounds looking for safety concerns regarding students health and looking for strangers that might be on the premises.”

Oddi is one of the many RAs/CAs living within the dorms. Most of the time they are able to take care of the concerns of the residents, however when they can’t they go to their CSD.

McDougall helps one of the residents within Trinity with her class schedule.

Amy McDougall is the CSD in Trinity, one of the red bricks, and she acknowledges the relationship between the RAs and CSDs.

“We are the ones who get called when the situation gets too big for the RA’s to handle.” she said.

CSDs serve on an on-call rotation.  This being that each night, one of the CSDs within the red bricks and towers takes all the calls from the RAs and one of the CSDs in the apartments gets all the calls from the CAs.  However, if the situation becomes too much for them they have a plan.

“We work very closely with UPD and the paramedics to ensure student’s safety.” McDougall said.

Within on-campus housing there are numerous safety concerns among the persons living there.

Safety Concerns

Gypsum is home to the freshmen apartments in PCV. Freshmen live here due to the large freshman class.

Safety concerns range from individual safety to the safety of the community.  Scott Sakamoto,  a first year business major, lives in Gypsum which is the freshmen apartments in Poly Canyon Village.  He feels relatively safe within the apartment complex but has one main concern.

“Sometimes people see other people outside the door and just let them in without knowing who they are,” he said. “You don’t want to be that guy that doesn’t let them in, but sometimes it’s sketchy.”

McDougall constantly has to remind students not to just let anybody into the hall and turn a ‘blind eye’ to it

“If students feel like somebody shouldn’t be in the hall they need to make sure they are doing something about it.” she said.

Common Concerns Among Residents

• Strangers within the halls
• Theft
• Overdose on drugs and alcohol
• Vandalism to property

However, McDougall has a different issue at the top of concern list. This being personal safety in regards to consuming unsafe amounts of drugs and alcohol and students not holding each other accountable.

“To me as a CSD one of the scariest calls you can get is for a student who is unresponsive and needs to be transported to the hospital.”

This is why at the beginning of the year the university has multiple programs regarding alcohol and drug education in order to reduce this safety risk.

Despite current risks and concerns, Joella Oddi feels good about her safety.

“Generally its a safe area and usually I feel pretty safe on campus.” she said.