April 16, 2025: Follow Up on Security at Memorial Last Night

Wednesday, April 16, 2025 email from President Sarah Bolton to campus with additional information about private security staff on campus:

Dear Whitman Students and Colleagues,

I am emailing tonight with some additional information about security at Memorial. I received several questions today regarding whether or not the private security officer that was present at Memorial last night was armed.  

I want to be really transparent that last night the officer was, in fact, armed. While that is the practice of the company, that was not the intention when the college asked for their assistance. In fact, it is against college policy for anyone other than sworn law enforcement officers in the course of their duties to carry firearms on campus. For that reason, we have required that, moving forward, any security officers coming onto Whitman’s campus be unarmed. The company has committed to that practice.  

I want to assure the community that moving forward, and consistent with our policies, we will not have armed private security officers on campus from any company.

It is also important to reiterate that the role of the security officers from the outside company is to keep watch and to call Whitman Campus Security if anything arises. They are not intended to engage with students or others on campus in the course of their work.

Sincerely,  

Sarah Bolton