Washington University’s fire safety rating was disappointing in itself, but worse were the cover-ups that some administrators engineered to limit student knowledge on the subject.
Keith Steinbrueck, an admissions analyst for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, told Student Life that he could not locate the person who filled out the fire safety survey sent to the Princeton Review. Yet Director of Admissions Nanette Tarbouni confirmed that he actually turned them in. Why the lie?
Perhaps Steinbrueck forgot that he did the survey; after all, he did send the survey to the Princeton Review in January, according to Perry Medina, undergraduate data collection manager for the Princeton Review. The survey, though, included far more than fire safety questions-it totalled seven whole pages and asked for all sorts of facts. It’s doubtful that Steinbrueck forgot that he compiled that report.
To top it off, one administrator was unwilling to say where Admissions got the fire safety statistics in the first place. The statistics were compiled “by several people,” according to Campus Safety Coordinator Paul Landgraf. However, he refused to disclose the names of those people, citing a fear of “saying something I shouldn’t that isn’t public knowledge.”
Assistant Vice-Chancellor for Students Justin Carroll didn’t have a problem making it public knowledge that his office provided the statistics to Landgraf, though.
Landgraf’s supervisor, Director of Insurance and Risk Management Keith Klein, was puzzled by Landgraf’s refusal to disclose the data’s source. “I don’t know why Paul responded in that fashion,” he said.
Steinbrueck’s and Langdorf’s actions make no sense. There seems to be no reason why they wouldn’t answer questions about the origin of the fire safety data and how that data got to the Princeton Review. Are they responsible for something connected to this survey that they don’t want disclosed?
In any event, there’s no excuse for such stonewalling. When it comes to student safety, students have a right to know the facts. Obfuscating responsibility is not acceptable. For all we knew, until Carroll confirmed that ResLife was the source of the statistics, the statistics could have been completely fabricated.
Carroll and Tarbouni deserve thanks for clarifying this matter.