The Current 2006-10-27

              Friday | October 27, 2006
The Green River Community College Student Newspaper Since 1965
Welding project
saves school big
$15,000 saved as result
of new trellis
see page 4
FREE | Additional copies 25¢
Gator Volleyball on
top of division
page 16
Crime rate on
campus down
dramatically
Mary Kieffer
Freelance Reporter
The GRCC Security Department has
cracked down on campus crime. The Fed-eral
Crime Report submitted annually by the
college reveals property crime has histori-cally
been its biggest problem.
However, burglaries (theft from auto, sto-len
purses, etc.) showed a dramatic decline
from 49 cases reported in 2003 to 11 in 2004
and just nine in 2005. Security Director Fred
Creek attributes this to an increase in vis-ibility.
After being “hit really hard” in early
2003, Creek assigned a security officer to
every campus parking lot for over a year.
While this tactic was also successful in re-ducing
auto thefts on campus by 57 percent
during the same period, some ground was
lost in 2005 with nine auto thefts reported.
Creek also credits several other factors to
the success of his department in maintain-ing
a safe campus. Being situated within a
community, neighbors are vigilant and feel
comfortable calling the security office when
things look suspicious. Officer longevity
among the 17 security officers assigned to
the college and a good working relation-ship
with the King County Sheriff’s Office
(KCSO) are also a plus.
Creek calls the KCSO “very responsive,”
adding that the deputies working in this area
have come to know that the security staff
has a good feel for what can be handled
without police involvement and know they
won’t be called in for minor issues. He also
gives credit to the student judiciary process,
especially in dealing with liquor and drug
violations.
Creek finds his biggest challenges to be
money and parking - operating his depart-ment
at the most effective level with the
money available and “changing the behav-ior”
of students and faculty who feel the
need to park close in. With 40,000 parking
stalls and a free shuttle service from Pacific
Raceway, there is always plenty of parking
available. Creek says he “sets the standard”
by carpooling to work with his wife, who
also works for the college.
Generally, Green River students seem to
feel safe on campus. There are only about
two calls for security escorts each night.
Though there has not been much interest
generated by students to offer classes in
personal safety, Creek says he is willing
and capable of providing them. He has been
teaching an employee class, “Conflict De-
Escalation” for the past 5 or 6 years.
In addition to his nearly 10 years at Green
River, Creek, 40, spent 14 years in the U.S.
Army Military Police, recently retiring with
20 years of service. He says the reason he
prefers the college setting and this type of
work versus mainstream law enforcement
is that he gets to provide community polic-ing
that has the flexibility of treating en-forcement
as part of the education process.
“We’re service-oriented. We don’t say no.”
Forestry wins
chapter of the
year
page 7
Paul Rusesabagina
presents Rwanda: A
lesson yet to be learned
page 10
GRCC’s alternative parking source
just became more convenient
Ryan Lewis
Staff Reporter
New gravel for GRCC’s parking area
at pacific raceways is yet another im-provement
made recently for students tak-ing
advantage of the shuttle program. The
program was designed to meet the needs
of excessive traffic and lack of parking
spaces that has been apparent for the past
few years.
Fred Creek, the head of security for
GRCC, hopes that gravel as opposed to
mud in the rainy season will encourage
students to continue to take advantage
of the program through out the year. Al-though,
the program isn’t perfect, the
shuttle can be convenient for those that
don’t mind a seven minute ride from the
race ways to campus. The shuttle service
have also improved this year as the shut-tles
come with increased regularity.
Creek pointed out that students cars
are actually more secure at the raceways
due to security posted on guard until 5
p.m. and now that the gravel has been ap-plied
to the parking area it’s a much more
desirable experience. Security at GRCC is
spread much more thin than at the race-ways
as they have an entire campus to
cover. Four inches of gravel was applied
to the surface that has topped out at 327
cars at once earliest this year. The gravel
should ultimately increase that number.
The guards on post explained that they
had yet to turn a car around due to lack of
spaces and don’t see that as a potential
problem any time soon. Though, stu-dents
might like the idea of having there
cars closer to them there are apparently
no plans of expanding parking lots on
campus and the shuttle program has be-come
a permanent solution for GRCC’s
parking dilemma. It is quickly becoming
the only parking opportunity to an other-wise
helpless situation.
Creek exclaims that they hope of
getting a new paved parking area at the
raceways within the next few years. So,
it’s just a matter of time before more im-provements
are made to make parking for
GRCC more convenient and efficient for
students in the years to come.
The new gravel gives students even less of an excuse noy to park at the raceways. Parking has continued
to be one of the most hot button issues here on campus, if not the largest. Cars are more secure
at the raceways than on campus because of the increased presence of security
Keiley Ramseur/The CURRENT
Pacific Raceways, located just outside of campus, have recently been repaved making it easier for those looking for a place to park outside of campus.
For more on transportation here
at Green River see pages 8 and 9.
In-depth transportation
coverage continued inside...
KGRG sets up at
Maris Farms
	 page 13