I didn't really know Chris Elser. So many others did, though. Many in my classes, some of my friends and many in the Gatehouse knew him and his kindness. I felt a little detached from the whole event, being as unacquainted with him as one possibly can be on this campus.
But the people I have talked to are not so unaffected. This crime has wrapped this campus in a dark, pervasive cloud.
The murder of Chris Elser is Homewood's Sept. 11. This community has been violated in the worst way by a force that, if unchecked, would destroy the student community. Without a fundamental refocusing on security, this will surely come to pass.
Do all levels of the administration understand this?
For those administrators and professors who don't live in the Charles Village area, Chris Elser's death should be a wake-up call that all the what-ifs and the possiblys and the but-you're-just-speculatings can't hold water anymore. Students' security concerns are real. They're well-founded. Not taking care of them can have deadly consequences.
Any other viewing asks us to turn our backs on what threatens students at this school every day. We have been attacked and we must respond, united, to meet the threat.
Partially, that means beefing up our "Homewood security." Students will need to be alert and aware that they live in Charles Village. Charles Village isn't a gated community, and Baltimore isn't the Hamptons. Just because the school needs to do more doesn't mean that we shouldn't.
At the same time, the university needs to help lead the effort to fight back. It must realize that it is not a choice for students to live off-campus. The administration has forced this upon us. The administration doesn't provide enough housing. The administration has increased the size of the freshman class. The administration has put all juniors and seniors out on the streets. (We don't have anything like the NYU library, so we can't sleep at the MSE for four months.) The university must take responsibility for aiding and improving student security, because, in many ways, it is responsible for putting students into an insecure environment.
Doing nothing, or claiming that what's going on is "good enough," would be like ignoring Osama Bin Laden after the World Trade Center attacks. It will hand victory to the criminals, and end the Hopkins community's way of life.
We're going to need a Homewood security council of some sort. It's going to need to have the principals: Security Director Mullen, President Brody or Jerry Schnydman, the commander of the Northern Police District, a representative of the mayor's office, and student representatives. The council should serve as the focal point for security issues. It must discuss and negotiate solutions between the different interests, resolving such problems as street lighting, police patrols, shuttle services and dorm access, to name a few.
Equally important would be a development campaign by the school, perhaps the "Christopher Elser Security Fund" - obviously with his parents' agreement - to raise money from Homewood alumni expressly for the purpose of enhancing security throughout campus and the community. That dedicated funding would go a long way toward empowering a working Homewood security council group.
Some are going to tell me that I don't know what's really going on, what the politics are. I'll tell you the real politics. What matters is that Chris Elser's dead, and that we have a moment of opportunity when students and administrators must unite to fix the problem. If administrators feel unfairly attacked by students, they must recognize that it comes from a students' fear that what they can do on their own isn't enough and that the school hasn't done enough to help them.
The answer cannot be more public diplomacy and spin, but action and cooperation. President Brody, the board of trustees and every single dean of this school must recognize that the students on the ground need help from the administrators who appear to be living in the clouds.
I didn't really know Chris Elser, but I've encountered his legacy. Right now, his murder has left grief, fear and uncertainty. We must change that: we must act to prevent another Homewood Sept. 11.
I came here what seems an eternity ago. From "midnight soccer" freshman year to Tommy sophomore year, to the News-Letter, it's been a long five years. To my friends and family: in a school of communities, you have been mine, and I am thankful that even as I leave this place, our friendship and ties will not end.
This is Raphael Schweber-Koren's final column for the News-Letter. He graduates in May.
