MEGHAN GUATTERY
Assistant News Editor
Changes are coming to Fredonia in the upcoming Fall semester that will affect many clubs and annual Fredonia-affiliated activities that work with minors.
The Fredonia Child Protection Policy (CPP), while currently a working draft, is a 24-page document that covers the ins and outs of children under 17 in relation to Fredonia.
“I grew up in this bucolic, happy childhood where I skipped out the door every morning and didn’t come back until night,” said Director of Human Resources and Co-Chair of the Child Protection Policy Committee Michael Daley. “It was great. You came home when you came home. I realize the world is a different place than when I grew up.”
According to the CPP, some camps, such as the New York State School Music Association music camp held in the summer, as well as other Fredonia-sponsored activities, may now require precautionary measures to be taken, such as background checks against the National Sex Offender Registry, photo identification displayed on a lanyard or even extra insurance.
“You would never want to have Fredonia’s name associated in any way, shape or form with any allegation of child abuse,” said Daley. “It would be devastating from a reputational standpoint, as well as simply in doing the right thing. We want your experience here to be great. We do not want for a minute or a second to potentially expose you or any of your wonderful student colleagues to any potential harm.”
The policy was recently announced to the Student Association club presidents and treasurers at Spring Summit by SA president Jefferson Dedrick; it came as quite the surprise to many in attendance.
“We knew it was going to go into effect next semester,” said Dedrick, sophomore social studies and history adolescent education major and Student Association President. “We didn’t want to wait until next Summit for people to hear about this, because it was important that they be at least aware of it going into next semester so we didn’t just ambush them with it.”
The student leaders in attendance left feeling a bit unsure as to whether they would be able to continue some of their child-centric events in the future.
“The CPP applies to all covered activities,” said Daley. “This is when a Fredonia employee or a third-party vendor is going to be responsible for the control and custody of a child that is coming here.”
Little Siblings Weekend will be taking the biggest hit of all, due to the many activities that the children take part in without a guardian; the event will more than likely have to be canceled.
“We’re finding out what other schools are doing about Little Siblings Weekend,” said Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. David Herman. “Right now, that’s one that we may not be able to continue.”
However, Student Association groups do not need to worry just yet about having to cancel their annual children-centric events.
“Group activities, such as Safe Halloween, holiday events, other group activities sponsored by our Greek organizations, student governments, clubs: those are all exempt from the policy … as long as [the children participating] are escorted by a parent or guardian,” said Daley.
Recruiting visits and public events, such as Blue Devil sporting events or art exhibits, are just a few of the other exceptions to the CPP.
“[The exceptions] came to us from SUNY Legal because they realized that’s how we engender some positive relations while allowing our students to assume leadership positions outside the classroom,” said Daley.
While the committee and Fredonia faculty will be attempting to keep Fredonia a safe place for children and adults alike, they realize they cannot keep eyes on every inch of campus all the time.
“You can’t cover everything,” said Herman. “You can’t make it perfectly safe. We’re a public university, people come on campus, kids ride their bikes on campus, and we don’t know how old they are, so we can’t control some of that.”