The Gauntlet likes to regularly check in with our friends at Campus Security to find out amusing happenings at the University of Calgary.
Over the last few months, Campus Security has had its hands full with events like Bermuda Shorts Day, along with some more explosive situations.
“In Engineering Block they’re doing major renovations,” said Campus Security director Lanny Fritz. “As a part of that renovation, they were moving out a bunch of shelves and cabinets that were stored in the hallway that have been there for many years. As they went to move them they noticed a jar of TNT.”
The jar contained about 500 grams of TNT. Campus Security called the Calgary Police Service to assess the situation. The bomb squad blew up the jar in a dirt pile on west campus.
“We had to evacuate [Engineering A Block] and it had to stay evacuated for several hours. Those things are a little bit of an inconvenience and it takes a little bit of strategy to do that, and of course, as luck would have it, our dean at the time was involved in a fundraiser with donors in the building and they had to leave.”
On BSD Campus Security called an ambulance on nine separate occasions — seven were related to alcohol poisoning. Another was called after an individual climbed onto the stage at the beer gardens and then fell off, knocking themselves unconscious and sustaining facial injuries in the process. An additional ambulance was called for a student who fell while trying to climb over a fence, said Fritz.
The couch races also caused some security concerns with six or seven people ending up in the hospital.
“We had chesterfields that weighed several hundred pounds on wheels going down a hill into the crowd — the crowd was at the bottom of the hill, so the chesterfields were coming towards them. These were chesterfields with no steering mechanism, there’s no braking mechanism, they were just flying down the hill. In some cases flying into the crowd and in other cases into the fence,” said Fritz. “It was a high risk activity that resulted in some injuries.”
Campus Security responded to a reported assault near the University LRT station after an individual reportedly head-butted another for no reason. All the people involved were intoxicated and declined police involvement, according to the February security report.
In March, three students were seen lighting a chair on fire outside of Engineering A Block. The incident was reported and captured on CCTV. Security spoke with the involved students near the Prairie Chicken.
In April, security assisted the Calgary Fire Department in locating a male exchange student who was reported to be stuck on an arch somewhere on campus. Campus Security found the student on top on the large arch on the south side of campus. He was intoxicated and insisted he was a cat. The student’s girlfriend told security that he was trying to impress her with his climbing skills while celebrating his last day in Canada.
Campus Security was called later in April after unknown individuals threw cement paving slabs from the sixth floor of the Arts Parkade onto the entrance lanes below. The slabs were 24 inches by 24 inches and cement debris was found scattered in the surrounding area. No one was hurt and no vehicles were damaged.