The hostage situation may have ended peacefully, but some faculty members and students are questioning the way the university handled the incident.
Politics professor Don Greenberg believes that the university should have intervened differently, and used the personal relationship many had with hostage taker Patrick Arbelo to stop the situation before it escalated into a media frenzy.
“I think a lot of people knew Pat. It might have been better to intervene and talk him down ourselves,” said Greenberg.
While letting the police handle the situation might have been a procedural inevitability, Greenberg does not think there should be such a celebratory tone in the aftermath.
“I don’t particularly like the self-congratulatory tone…there were no heroes, no great activity. I object to the way the Fairfield Police are mugging about the great job they did and I think the university is doing the same thing.”
It is in that perceived aftermath of celebration that some students are questioning the way the university acted.
The decision to return to class the next day with no real dialog on the issue did not sit well with junior Katelyn Hayes.
“We weren’t given the proper time to deal with it, which is why the student community hasn’t taken the situation as seriously as it should have been,” Hayes said. “If the university had less of a ‘move on, go to class, it’s over’ policy then the impact would be greater.”
Hayes continued, “I was in class, in that room, at noon the next day.”
Doug Whiting, associate vice president of public relations, believes that the university did an excellent job.
“My general sense is Fairfield University, in the truest sense of our institution acted marvelously,” Whiting said. “People from throughout the university responded with care.”
Overall, Whiting believed that the students acted extremely well, both in their behavior and comments to media outlets. “They are to be commended, Professor Dreyer as well.”
Dreyer, the individual many credit with keeping the situation calm, welcomed the long President’s Day break.
“It was nice to have the long weekend,” Dreyer said. Overall, Dreyer said she was doing “as well as can be expected.”
Many students were wondering where Father Kelly, the university president, was during the standoff.
Kelly, according to Whiting, was, “out of town on a long planned Alumni visit. He remained in direct contact and was (kept) up to date throughout the seven hours.”
Arbelo was arraigned on 28 counts of kidnapping on Wednesday, Feb 13. While the crime could result in a life sentence, Greenberg and Dreyer believe that is not the solution.
“Pat had a lot of problems here,” Greenberg said. “He was a difficult individual to know. I don’t believe Pat should be in jail, he should be getting help.”
Dreyer feels the same way. “I hope he gets medical help. That’s my deep concern, that he gets assessed, and we find out what he needs for medical help.”
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