The Baylor Lariat

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STAY CONNECTED >> LTVN Exclusive : Climbing the rock wall is beneficial in more ways than one.

BATTLE OF THE BANDS pg. 6

W E ’ R E T H E R E W H E N YO U C A N ’ T B E

FRIDAY

APRIL 1, 2016

B AY L O R L A R I AT. C O M

Lawsuit against Baylor develops GAVIN PUGH Assistant City Editor

PLAYING IT SAFE Charlene Lee | Lariat Photographer

WATCHING OUT The Baylor Police Department has announced a new program that would make it safer to carry out online exchanges in person. Members of the Baylor community can now use the campus police department as a rendezvous point for Craigslist and other online sales. Red Oak sophomore Calle Coleman and Keller sophomore Grace Kim demonstrate how this would work.

Baylor Police Department unveils new system for secure online exchanges DANE CHRONISTER City Editor The Baylor Police Department is a system where members of the community can meet in the lobby of the police department to exchange items bought on sites like Craiglists, Baylor’s Free and For Sale Facebook page or other online sites. Robinson senior Daniel Rager was robbed and shot at on March 23 during a Craigslist transaction off campus. Rager met two men in Waco at Oakwood Park, near Oakwood Ave. and Ninth Street, to complete the transaction. Baylor Police Chief Brad Wigtil and his staff have made accommodations for students to no longer feel unsafe when doing deals like this where anything can happen. “We want to create a safe space for these internet transactions for faculty, staff and students. We encourage folks to do these transactions in the Baylor Police Department lobby,” Wigtil said. The lobby will be available between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. for all students, staff and faculty to come in and let the dispatcher know what they are doing and how long they will be meeting.

“Trust your instincts if things aren’t quiet right, then back out at any time, but meeting in a public place rather than not is a good safety measure,” Wigtil said. A student, then, can rely on one of the 46 staff members to keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary while the transaction is being made. “Waco Police Department and Robinson already have a system going on where people can meet under police surveillance, which I was informed of afterwards. But it’s something I would suggest for anyone who is doing any kind of online deal,” Rager said. After being a part of this ordeal, Rager suggests students make every possible means to be in a public place and have other people present. “If you don’t have a handgun on you, the police department is the best place to meet. Let the police know and they can keep an eye on it from the building, but take every precaution that you can,” Rager said. “If I would have known about it, this probably never would have happened, they probably never would have shown up.” Robinson’s Police Chief Rusty Smith has helped institute the internet purchase exchange location at the Robinson Police

Department and looks to help individuals in the community feel safe during these transactions as well. “This process is something that has just been instituted, but our public information officer has put the information on the City of Robinson and Police Department’s Facebook page,” Smith said. The Robinson Police Department’s video surveillance is down for now, Smith said, due to an electrical issue, but it is being worked on this week and he hopes to have it up and working again soon. The Robinson Police Department is located at 111 West Lyndale Drive, and Baylor’s Police Department is located at the Speight Plaza Parking Facility, 1521 S. 4th St. “We are wanting people to feel comfortable here,” Smith said. “You can never trust someone you have never met on an internet transaction and you don’t know their motives. Ladies who bring a male friend might dissuade someone from taking advantage of you, but no one should go alone, there is greater safety in numbers.” For further questions about the internet purchase exchange locations, call the Robinson Police Department at (254) 6620525 or Baylor Police at (254) 710-2211.

The press conference regarding the Title IX suit against Baylor University scheduled for yesterday was canceled due to severe weather in Dallas shutting down flights from California. Zalkin Law Firm, the San Diego based company representing sexual assault victim Jasmin Hernandez, posted the announcement on YouTube instead. Hernandez was assaulted by Tevin Elliott, former Baylor student and football player in 2012. Elliott was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined $10,000 in January of 2014 for two counts of sexual assault. Hernandez was accompanied by her attorney, Alex Zalkin, and answered questions from press present at the announcement. Zalkin was not available for comment. He did, however, provide a document announcing the suit, as well as a list of complaints on behalf of Hernandez. The defendants named were the Baylor University Board of Regents, head football coach Art Briles and athletic director Ian McCaw. The document identified both Briles and McCaw as having been in the

“I’m asking for accountability and, sort of, responsibility for things they are federally obligated to provide to their students.”

position to punish Elliott. “If this is what it takes to make Baylor accountable, of course it’s quite difficult, but it’s necessary,” Hernandez said in the video. In January, the university was accused of mishandling sexual assault cases in ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” report. In the report three alleged sexual assault victims, one of them being Hernandez (who went by Tanya in the report), spoke out and discussed how they were treated by university faculty and staff in regards to their sexual assault cases. “The complaint asks for unspecified monetary compensation for physical and emotional damages, past and future medical

LAWSUIT >> Page 4

>>WHAT’S INSIDE opinion

Choir to perform famous requiem LIESJE POWERS Staff Writer

Editorial: The traffic around Magnolia can cause injuries to children, pg. 2

sports Future Play: Baylor football is set to play BYU in 2021 and 2022. pg. 6

Vol.116 No. 90

An ensemble featuring the Chancel Choir and St. Paul’s Singers will perform Gabriel Faure’s “Requiem” at 5 p.m. Sunday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. The choir will be directed by Shawn Cody Miller, Baylor graduate conductor of a cappella choir and chamber singers and associate director of music at St. Paul’s. It will include nearly 20 choir members. The instrumentalists include Baylor organ professor Dr. Isabelle Demers and a few

horn students. The string players consist of teachers and students of the Central Texas String Academy as well as harpist Katherine Kappelmann. The “Requiem in D minor, Op. 48,” is one of Faure’s best known works. It was created during his time as an organist at the L’eglise de la Madeleine in Paris. The composition was created for an annual mass and originally consisted of five movements, scored for only low strings and organ. The piece being performed on Sunday will include seven

ON THE FENCE

Richard Hirst | Photo Editor

Missouri City Freshman Ford Hash and Argyle sophomore Emily Volk practice as part of the fencing club team Thursday night in Russell Gym. They practice in the gym from 6 to 9 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday night.

REQUIEM >> Page 4 © 2016 Baylor University


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