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Police, equality alliance come to agreement

The University of Wisconsin Alliance for Programming Equality and UW Police Department reached an agreement Tuesday to open communication about safety in planning Union events.

Tuesday's meeting came as the result of the cancellation of a UW Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity's party, which planned to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and Mexican Independence Day Sept. 15. It was canceled by UWPD due to concerns over crowd control issues.

National Lambda Theta Phi officials accused UWPD of racial profiling late September.

UWPD Chief of Police Sue Riseling and Lieutenant Bill Larson, who attended the meeting, denied the fraternity's allegations that the event was canceled based on race or the type of music that would have been played.

"We try very hard to stay away from content [of events], whether that's in demonstrations like pro-choice or any issue," Riseling said. "It doesn't help us to get caught up in the content of things."

APE — a Union directorate committee that represents student organizations — and UWPD reached a compromise involving a revision of the Registered Student Organization process currently in place, which sets rules for hosting events at Wisconsin Unions.

"[The Union] is a place where every student should feel safe," said Matt Forrest, WUD music committee assistant director. "This is their house, and it should have the same expectations that a house on Langdon Street has."

According to Amanda Green, Wisconsin Union vice president of public relations, the revised RSO Security Board would add various student organizations like the Associated Students of Madison, WISPIRG, MultiCultural Student Coalition and the Student Organization office to ensure the success and safety of union events.

Previous RSO Security Board meetings were made up of two UWPD officers, a Union employee and students involved in planning the event being discussed.

"For us, both unions need to be the students' house," Riseling said. "We want more than anything for people to feel the same. We're on the same page here."

According to Union Building and Event Manager Roger Vogts, the amount of security at Union events is based on two principles: the previous experience with a group and the size of the planned event.

APE also discussed the formation of a security plan, which would take place months before the event date. An event could be booked almost a year in advance, though there would be no security meeting until two or three weeks before it was supposed to happen, Green said.

UWPD said the department must take the past into consideration when securing events. According to Riseling, UWPD is accountable for more than recent occasions, and police must apply that knowledge to present-day events.

"For example, every [football] game we go into we always have to go back to 1993, [when] students ran onto the field, knocking over the fences and people were stuck underneath," Riseling said. "It was just a huge mess."

Larson, APE and UW officials will meet biweekly to further discuss plans.

"Sometimes it takes a lot longer to get to a point where people agree, and it got there pretty quickly," Associate Dean of Students Argyle Wade said. "We just have to continue to work on the details to flush out exactly how this will work."