November 2, 2011 12:22 am
Zylak Selected for Director of Public Safety Position
By Steve Rees, Former Managing Editor
After phone and on-campus interviews with potential candidates for the College Director of Public Safety position, Interim Director Dave Zylak has been selected to officially take on the responsibility.
Having been with the College since last April as Interim Director, Zylak has become increasingly familiar with the College campus, having already been a lifelong resident of St. Mary’s County and affiliated with the campus through his daughter, a St. Mary’s graduate.
Among other potential candidates, Zylak was selected over Carlos Sanchez, currently a public safety consultant in Miami, Florida.
After numerous phone interviews, seven candidates were selected. “From there, we came up with the top three to bring to campus,” said Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Students Laura Bayless, “and Zylak and Sanchez were two of the top three.” The third interviewee declined the on-campus interview.
Zylak and Sanchez spent last Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, in meetings with students and administrators discussing the position and views of public safety and law enforcement. This involved having lunch with students at noon in the Great Room, a tour around campus (even for Zylak), and an open forum in the Glendening Annex from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
“While background checks still need to be completed,” said Bayless, ”Zylak has been offered the position of Director of Public Safety.”
In meetings with students, Zylak believed that the most important role of a public safety officer is to protect students, faculty, staff, and others on-campus, a role similar to a police officer with respect to a city’s citizens and visitors. He has encouraged positive Public Safety-student relations through programs with students and bi-monthly open hours and hopes to replace the police-like look of the current public safety officers with shirts displaying embroidered badges.
“Most students know the officers and some by name,” said Zylak, “so the hard badge and uniform is not really necessary.”
In terms of partying policy, Zylak understood some students like to drink and could get a little “tipsy.” He said, “If you’re stumbling around on Route 235 at night in and out of traffic, we might have a problem.”
I know he talked about students “knowing” the officers because there have been a number of discussions about how students only know him and Officer Mary but he hasn’t done anything to help students meet or get to know the officers and now he is saying that most students know them. That doesn’t make sense.
When they are driving the PS vehicles or walk into the Campus Center it is pretty easy to “know” who they are but that doesn’t really mean anything. They dress differently so we can SEE who they are.
Dave Zylak, just because you say that students “know” the officers doesn’t change the fact that at your Open Hour people were complaining about not knowing them. These things don’t just magically fix themselves; you do have to do something to help promote communication and relationships between officers and students.
Not to let the facts get in the way of a good moral superiority trip but please re-read the sentence:
“Most students know the officers and some by name,” said Zylak, “so the hard badge and uniform is not really necessary.”
He is not saying students know who the officers are on a personal level (thus only some by name) but rather they recognize them as officers, uniform or no uniform.
Zylak also holds regular open hours and is organizing a dodge ball game between students and officers. Not to mention the entire point of changing the uniforms to something softer is “to help promote communication and relationships between officers and students” by making the officers less menacing and more approachable.
Is there no pleasing the ignorant, radical, always-want-to-be-worked-up part of this campus??? For the love of god, go to the door tonight and chill the f*** out.
Just throwing it our there, PS officers are people, too. You can walk up to them and introduce yourself, have a conversation, and get to know them. It’s a two way street, folks. I see them around campus all the time and say hi. There’s 2000 of us and only like 10 of them. Help them out! It’s easy to complain when you’re not willing to take the effort to introduce yourself.
Student:
What have you done to better communications with the PS staff? Have you ever just walked up to any of the officers and introduced yourself? Have you ever said, “Thanks” for the many, many times they have provided emergency services for the many students who have medical emergencies? These PS folks work 12-14 hour days to make sure there is adequate coverage for the entire college, 24-7, and most aren’t paid much. So, if you or your friends are offended that the PS staff don’t meet your expectations, then I suggest YOU do something to help better the situation.
LANGUAGE