JORDYN HOLKA
Managing Editor
Last week The Leader sat down with Dr. David Herman, vice president of Student Affairs, in search of answers to questions regarding the recent cancellation of FRED Fest. Questions were gathered from the student body at Student Association’s General Assembly meeting on Thursday, Feb. 12.
Jordyn Holka: Some students are saying the cancellation notice seems to have come out of the blue. Can you address this?
Dr. David Herman: I’d like to make a general statement about the timing of all of this — we’ve been talking about FRED Fest the entire 14 years I’ve been here, and it was discussed years before I came. It’s been a difficult event to deal with, because it’s so diverse, and a lot of it has gone off-campus. It was fairly manageable early on because it wasn’t all that big, but when social media came along, it suddenly got much bigger, and the people coming were from further away. We ended up with high school kids — the kids wait for FRED Fest. We arrested people from other colleges.
It shouldn’t have been out of the blue after last year. I talked a lot last year about raising the bar, making FRED Fest better, making something we can be proud of, and finishing with, “the future of FRED Fest is up to all of us to work together to make it better.”
The first clue probably was that it was not put in the student handbook. Starting in September, it wasn’t listed in the calendar. But we didn’t want to debate it all year long, because there’s some people that are just never going to give up, and we thought if we announce it in September, we’re going to be talking about this all year long. So we decided to announce it in January.
JH: Who ultimately made the decision to cancel FRED Fest?
DH: In the end, the President’s Cabinet made this decision, as far as from the university perspective. The President and the cabinet made the decision and agreed on sending out the letter. The cabinet is made up of the President and all the vice presidents.
JH: Students have asked why the decision wasn’t put up to a student vote. Can you answer this?
DH: Ultimately, the university is responsible for the use of the campus and the the space on campus, so it’s really a decision the university has to make, because we’re liable when we sponsor something where somebody gets injured.
JH: Were students consulted in making this decision? If so, who?
DH: Yes. Last year I talked to SA, all the student government presidents, all the student association presidents of all the groups, all the team captains of athletics, all the Greek leadership and others.
JH: What has been done with the suggestions that have been made by students with regards to potential solutions for the problem of FRED Fest getting out of hand?
DH: Some of the suggestions that came up last spring right before FRED Fest, it was too late to really implement them for last year’s FRED Fest. [But] I think almost every suggestion that came up last year has been tried [at some point].
JH: Students are concerned that the only “sober option” for celebrating FRED Fest has been taken away. Can you address this?
DH: There will be events on campus — they don’t have to go downtown. And even if there weren’t events on campus, they don’t have to go downtown.
JH: So there are going to be on-campus activities for students to participate in the weekend before dead week?
DH: That weekend we will have some activities, but they’re not going to be the big things that would draw people from off campus. It will be more like a normal weekend. There will be activities for students only.
JH: So what will happen to Spectrum’s allotted FRED Fest budget?
DH: The FRED Fest budget will still be used for the events that [Spectrum will] have.
JH: It seems that the university is washing its hands of FRED Fest responsibility, rather than actively looking out for the safety of its students. What can you say to this?
DH: We’re certainly not washing our hands of being concerned about students. It’s almost like, “help us help you.” Understand this, because it’s really for you. Somebody’s going to get hurt — somebody’s going to fall off a roof, some porch is going to collapse, somebody’s going to die — we’ve had people close. So, recognize that we’re doing this to help students in the future and that we can’t continue to go down the road we’ve been going down.
JH: Your letter noted that violence against women has been a problem during FRED Fest, but students have noted that it is not a problem solely at this time of year. What is the university doing to address and work against violence against women, other than cancelling FRED Fest?
DH: I don’t think our concern for sexual assault prevention is new at all. One of the first things that happened when I came to Fredonia is we submitted a grant to the department of justice for a sexual assault prevention coordinator, and Julie [Bezek] does a terrific job. [We work] with WSU and other student groups. We do training in the residence halls at the start of each semester about prevention of sexual assaults, how to party smart, things not to do, [how to] protect yourself.
It was a little bit eye opening for us last year with the students who came forward about the one particular event and the fact that they were so intimidated about filing an official complaint — that they felt they would be ostracized in the community, that they wouldn’t be able to stay in school here. So I think it was more on our minds, maybe, because of that. It’s always on our minds — it’s something we hope never happens to anybody.
JH: A common question we’ve been hearing asks why the university didn’t choose to take baby steps. Why not try just taking away visitation, trying to increase security or increasing consequences for unruly parties instead of completely cancelling such a well-known tradition?
DH: As long as we call it FRED Fest, we’re going to have that other image, that other tradition, to deal with, because it’s no longer what FRED Fest was intended to be.
We’ve tried baby steps. We have also tried more serious consequences — we had a house in the fall that had five parties in the first seven weekends of the Fall semester, and they were sent a letter that said the next time the police came to their house they would all be suspended. Some of them are not in school anymore. So, we have tried that; it hasn’t been particularly successful.
JH: If FRED Fest is cancelled, why has the no visitation rule been put in place that weekend in the residence halls?
DH: I really expect that some people will persist in trying to have house parties, and I think some of the first year students will still invite their friends to come up for the weekend, and that’s been a big problem in the residence halls. That’s one piece we want to take out of the equation.
JH: Do you believe that the no visitation rule that has been put in place for this year will actually keep students and their guests safer?
DH: Well, I hope they’ll stay home in the first place. Students should tell their friends to stay home if they’re not students.
JH: Do you have any worry the weekend before dead week will be worse this year?
DH: We have two or three months before that weekend, and I hope during that time, people will calm down a little bit. Right now it’s kind of new to them, they haven’t thought it through.
For the people who want to fight with the administration, I don’t think anything we did would have changed their mind.
JH: Is the university working with the village police this year to monitor off-campus activity?
DH: We have always worked with the village on managing — as best we can — FRED Fest. Our police department, their police department — we have a Campus Community Coalition that meets once a month and we always talk about FRED Fest, especially in the spring. I’m sure we’ll continue to work with them this year. We also work with the state police and the sheriffs, as well, because we always have to bring in extra security for [FRED Fest].
JH: A lot of students feel their voice was not heard in this decision making process, and that there is a growing divide between students and administration. Can you address this?
DH: I have never worked at a campus where students and the administration are closer than at Fredonia. I’ve never worked at a campus with more of an open door policy. I’ve never worked at a campus where students on surveys talked about their respect for faculty and staff, and vice versa. I think the administration here, historically, has been very student friendly. So I don’t think there’s a major gap.
JH: What can you say as to the future of what has been known as FRED Fest, starting with this year?
DH: I think we all have a lot of introspection to do about FRED Fest and what it means to us and what we want it to be. And I think we need a year without it to say, “Ok, let’s make something new.” We need a year to refocus and redesign FRED Fest.
I guess I’m optimistic that most students want to be proud of Fredonia and don’t want to hurt Fredonia in any way, and we’ll have a pretty good year. I’m sure there’s going to be some bumps, but I don’t think it’s going to be horrible. It can’t get much worse than it has been the last few years, anyway.
I have great respect for the students of Fredonia, and I think that, for the most part, they’ll make us proud.