After a confusing 15 months of turnover, Guilford’s Office of Public Safety has a new director. Ronald Stowe, retired captain in the High Point Police Department, has 32 years of law enforcement experience, 27 of which were spent in High Point. Stowe will be the fifth Director of Public Safety in this eventful period.The college chose Stowe out of 45 potential candidates for the position. Stowe has taught law enforcement throughout his career, mostly at community colleges, fulfilling Guilford’s requirement that the new director have some experience with students.
The months spent searching for a new director have not been easy. After previous director Sam Hawley’s sudden death in July (only three months after he took his position), Aaron Fetrow, dean for campus life, was appointed the interim director of public safety.
“I was given the title of interim director, however, that can be deceiving,” Fetrow said in an e-mail interview. “What I did was help with issues like budgeting and staffing decisions while the day-to-day operations fell squarely on our officers and administrative staff. A real dichotomy exists regarding this interim period. We have functioned very well, even admirably, without a full-time director, however, we cannot wait for Ron’s arrival.”
Stowe will officially begin his tenure at Guilford on Jan. 7 for the beginning of the spring semester.
“I’ve been really impressed by the Guilford community,” Stowe said. “I’ve reached a point in my law enforcement career where I could retire. But I don’t want to stop working. (Guilford) is ideal because it will allow me to use my training and experience in a different and smaller setting.”
The last year has been a particularly tumultuous one for Guilford, with the Bryan incident, the Virginia Tech shootings, and an on-campus robbery adding to Public Safety’s perennial concerns about alcohol, drugs and sexual assault.
“They need to focus away from petty fines,” said junior John Rock, who was robbed in the Bryan parking lot last semester. “(Public Safety) isn’t equipped to deal with an armed robbery in the parking lot at nine o’clock on a Sunday.”
Despite the importance of these more sensational incidents, the recurrent issue of on-campus sexual assault is still of great importance.
“(Sexual assault) is an issue on any college campus,” Stowe said. “People find themselves in situations where they are victims, even though it didn’t start out that way. One of the (most important) things (we can do) is to take sexual assault very seriously and let everyone know it will not be tolerated.