Everyone on Bison Hill is familiar with the smiling faces of Res Life who greet people from behind a desk in all the dorms, and they couldn’t picture Oklahoma Baptist without them. However, most people are unaware of a similar positon that was done away with this year.
The RFO position stood for Resident Facility Officer. It was a position at OBU where, during the week a full-time RFO, and during the weekend a student, would sit in the five dorms on campus and go every hour around the building and check to see if the doors were locked, make sure nobody was trying to break into anything, and overall ensure that dorm was safe. They would work 11pm to 7am every day of the week.
Matthew Bendure, a senior Social Studies Secondary Education major, worked as an RFO for three years until the position’s dissolution after the Spring semester of 2016. Funding is the major reason RFOs no longer have a place at OBU.
“Money was tight,” Bendure said. “They were having a hard time keeping dispatchers on staff because the pay was not very competitive. With advances in technology and our camera systems, they deemed it cost-effective to put cameras in all the dorms and dissolve that position, and take that funding they were using to pay the RFOs and use it for the Dispatcher position.”
Dispatchers work in the police station on campus and watch the cameras throughout the night. However, they do not provide the personal interaction that the RFOs did.
“One of the pros is having a human face in there at all times. Having that person that you could come to at 3 in the morning if you were having problems, if you needed help. Just losing that human contact loses a lot with it” Bendure said.
And the loss of the RFO positon affected others besides those in dorms, namely Res Life. Houston Franklin is a senior pastoral ministry and biblical languages double major, and second year CL in the Village.
“The interaction between Res Life and RFO’s was simply a security for all of the people who live on dorms in campus” Franklin said. “Whenever the RFOs were working, we would get off our shift at 11 at night. But we just basically ran out of money, so they gave RAs two extra hours and replaced RFOs with cameras.”
"I personally do not agree with the decision,” Bendure said. “I understand it. I know that the budget was not there. But for me, the safety of students should not come down to financial reasons. I do not feel as if the cameras are as effective as having a human sit at the desk overnight. It’s hard to monitor that many dorms and the cameras for each dorm. And Dispatch and the campus police do a really good job; I just feel it’s an unnecessary burden that was put on them.”
The RFO position was another way in which OBU could provide a supportive and life-giving place for students, during a time when Res Life is unavailable.
“I miss the people that I got to interact with. I was in Howard dorm, which had the longest round. You got a sense that you were doing something, that you were helping keep people safe. The amount of contact you had with people was great, being able to be a light to them. If they were coming back late and had a rough day, they could see a smiling face. I miss being able to be that” Bendure said.
And some of Bendure’s sentiments are echoed by Res Life.
“I do think it is necessary that we do have RFOs in the dormitories, especially for the freshman dorms” Franklin said. “Having an extra pair of eyes overnight, for me at least, seems a little safer.”
And there are valid reasons why one should be concerned with safety on campus. Bendure recalled a story his first year as an RFO. On one of his rounds, he encountered a trunk open and two individuals walking around it. After shining his flashlight on them, which is standard for RFOs to carry, they took off running.
“I radioed it in, gave their description and location, and chased them to the edge of OBU’s campus” Bendure said.
Apparently three cars were broken into that night. The individuals were not apprehended, but if Bendure had not been making his rounds, perhaps more cars and property would have been damaged.
“Cameras don’t do that” Bendure said. “Cameras can see, but it takes a human to assess the situation. If the incident had been seen on a camera, it might have looked like someone unloading their trunk super late. Without human interaction, you lose a part of crime prevention; you become reactive instead of proactive.”
