Blue phone "mischief"
UBC’s blue phone system exists to provide a measure of public safety. The 19 blue phones on campus were put here with the intention of complementing the safety services provided by UBC and the RCMP.
Which brings us to a recently published statistic in Campus Security’s annual report which shows that, of the of 110 blue phone calls made last year, 101 were determined to be either mischief or accidental. In some of these cases, dispatchers were sent to the scene but couldn’t locate the person who had placed the call.
Which begs the question: is it presumptuous to say that these were all prank calls? It seems irresponsible to assume that a case was the result of mischief just because the caller didn’t remain at the scene of the call. And if the calls were all genuinely pranks or accidents, perhaps there is something to be said about how we are using this public safety service.
Sure, stationary call boxes aren’t the most convenient means of contacting emergency services. But that doesn’t mean we should be abusing a system that is set up for our own benefit.
Over The Moon
While there’s something strangely comical about a man spending 45 minutes trying to break into The Moon, spending another 45 minutes inside and then walking out with some cans of pop, the consequences of that act are no laughing matter: because the suspect opened all the refrigerator doors, the restaurant had to get rid of all the food and conduct special cleaning as a precaution.
So let’s review what happened here one more time: a man broke into the restaurant, didn’t actually steal or break anything, but still managed (most likely without even realizing it at the time) to cause thousands of dollars worth in damages to the restaurant without ever being identified. We guess this is what a not-so-fast getaway looks like.
Block Party blues
You’ll notice a lack of Block Party coverage in this issue. Traditionally, we try to cover Block Party as much as possible -- interviews with the performers, coverage of the plans for the event, etc. However, this year there was a distinct lack in cooperation between us, the AMS and the public relations representatives from the artists performing.
The artists decided to make it difficult for us to set up interviews. Chromeo told us that they’re “not doing press right now” but agreed to speak with the Syrup Trap -- which will be hilarious sure, but wouldn’t they also want to speak with other campus media?
We’re thankful that we’ve been able to set up times after this issue comes out, but the lack of communication surrounding Block Party from both the AMS and the PR representatives was (and still is) frustrating. We, essentially, provide free promotion for these artists, and while our readership doesn’t quite match the Rolling Stones or the New York Times, students still care and want to read about the artists that will be performing on campus -- it would be nice if PR reps recognized this.