The Carrier’s editorial opinion represents the views of the senior members of the Campus Carrier and Viking Fusions’ news staff.
The Viking Code: our college’s reference to all things “Berry,” from the yearly academic calendar and student conduct rules to the Fight Song and details about Marthapalooza, this handbook holds a majority of the information any student would need to know during their time at Berry.
However, as with many documents containing legal information, there are several sections of the handbook that are dense and wordy. While this is often a useful quality for reference materials, it makes the handbook somewhat inaccessible.
In addition to being wordy, in an effort to encompass various situations that may arise, the language in the handbook is vague. These qualities make the policies regarding weapons and self-defense, for example, unclear.
According to the Princeton Review, campus safety is a “great concern” for many students and parents when searching for the right college. Federal legislation requires colleges to disclose their security policies, keep a public crime log, publish an annual crime report and warn students and faculty about immediate campus threats.
While Berry adheres to these policies, it can be difficult for students to know what items they can carry for self-defense, if any, under Berry’s security policies, because weapons are defined by the Viking Code to be “any object or substance designed to inflict a wound, cause injury or incapacitate.”
Many students, especially those who identify as female, choose to carry small brass knuckles in the shape of cat ears or cans of pepper spray for self-defense, especially when walking alone at night. However, under the ambiguous definition of weapons in the Viking Code, students could be prosecuted for carrying these items.
There are no specific standards set in the code about self-defense and safety, choosing rather to encourage students to “walk confidently” and “stay in well-lighted areas” when outside at night. Yet some students feel the need to carry self-defense items at Berry and in Rome.
These items, which could be defined as weapons, are illegal to carry and have on campus according to the handbook, yet there are no instances that we could readily find on public record in which students have been prosecuted for carrying these items.
Why then, is there such a discrepancy in the language of the code? If Berry isn’t against students having these items for self-defense, shown in the lack of prosecution for these items, why does the code deny their use for safety?
Weapons are all considered the same under the code, and it seems irresponsible to demand that students group personal, non-lethal safety items, such as pepper spray, in with firearms and knives. Pepper spray, which is designed to briefly incapacitate an individual, is allowed according to Chief of Berry Police Bobby Abrams, as noted in a news article in this issue. In addition, small pocketknives are acceptable to carry both in residence halls and academic buildings.
There are other discrepancies in the code relating to weapons, aside from ambiguous wording. For instance, under the section about weapons, students cannot carry “knives with a blade two (2) inches or longer,” but under the “Endangerment” section of the code, students can not possess or use knives “with more than a 3” blade.”
Berry as a community needs to have more conversation about personal and campus safety that address these issues, and decide whether a change to the language of the Viking Code could be beneficial to students and faculty.
In the words of the handbook, “Personal safety and property at Berry College [is] everyone’s responsibility” – We have to work together to make sure that we are holding our community to a high standard in regard to personal and campus safety.
Click here to read more about self-defense in the Viking Code.