BANGOR, Maine — Students who attend the University of Maine at Augusta-Bangor attended the weekly Bangor City Council meeting Monday to share several concerns about their safety.
The university neighbors the Camp Hope homeless encampment, or what many local to Bangor call "tent city." It sits directly across from a campus parking lot that is designated for dental hygiene students.
Walking through the school's campus late at night is a regular routine for dental hygiene student Colby Quinlan. Quinlan said she's on campus five times a week, and she's constantly looking over her shoulder.
"No one feels safe enough to even stay on campus after hours for activities," she said. "Students' cars have been broken into. I'm scared my car will be broken into. Students have had people approach them asking for cigarettes and then they get into verbal confrontations because they don't have one or don't want to give one."
Bangor police public information officer Jason McAmbley confirmed that there have been some car break-ins on campus.
Quinlan said she doesn't even feel comfortable walking through the grass because she's afraid of stepping on a needle.
"Students have been driving and they've passed an unconscious body," she said. "I don't want to see that. I'm just trying to come to school and get my education. I don't want to have the secondhand trauma from something that I see."
Earlier this month, there was a shooting in a campus parking lot between two people who were living in their cars, according to Bangor police.
For students like Quinlan and her classmate Staci-Lea Anderson, the shooting incident was the last straw.
"This is something that's scaring people, scaring students that are paying to be here," Anderson said.
After the shooting happened, Anderson said she wrote a letter to the dean and the president of the University of Maine System. She said she received responses from faculty within a week after she wrote the letters, but she pointed out that when she has reached out to faculty in the past to share her worries and concerns about the encampment, there was a slower response. She said she believes the university gave a more urgent response because of the seriousness of the incident.
UMA Bangor provided the following statement to NEWS CENTER Maine:
"Every UMA student, faculty, and staff are able (and encouraged) to sign up for UMA Alerts. If a situation indicates an ongoing threat to life or health, individuals will be notified via UMA Alerts, as has always been the case. If the threat is no longer ongoing, individuals are notified via their university address as soon as possible. We did not issue an alert on the Feb. 11th shooting because the perpetrators had already been apprehended when UMA learned of the incident; therefore, there was no further threat."
Full UMA Bangor statement:
Quinlan said that in response to the shooting incident, she has heard faculty and Bangor police point out that the people involved in the shooting did not live in the encampment and mention that the shooting happened over the weekend when students were not on campus. She said she feels like these responses are deflections and mere excuses to minimize a serious breach in safety.
"We understand that the shooting wasn't between people from the encampment, but it's not a coincidence that it happened on our campus," Quinlan said.
Her mom, Denise Quinlan, said she fears that next time, students or even her daughter could be caught in the crossfire in a dispute between people from the encampment.
"They fire a shot, where's that bullet going? What if they miss?" Denise said. "It's going somewhere, and that parking lot where the dental hygiene students park is right there."
Denise said she doesn't feel like the city is taking a proactive approach to making sure students are safe.
"I don't feel that they're taking it seriously—I don't feel that the city is taking it seriously," Denise said.
McAmbley said he completely understands why students and their parents are up in arms about recent incidents and the encampment's close proximity to the school.
"There was a shooting on their campus, and everything that happens at Camp Hope happens there," McAmbley said.
According to McAmbley, multiple attempts to investigate crimes like drug dealing in the encampment have not led to arrests.
"We're aware that drug dealing is going on," McAmbley said. "Proving that drug dealing is going on is the task because nobody wants to cooperate."
Denise said she wants to see the encampment moved, but McAmbley said that is a decision that the city has to make, since the encampment sits on city-owned land.
Colby Quinlan said she can't fathom why the city would even allow an encampment to be right next to a university.
"People aren't coming to Maine or Bangor for tourist attractions to see a college unless they plan to come to the college," she said. "So, if it was in a more public area such as the waterfront or I would say at city hall, more action would be taken, and they would not be finding more excuses to not do anything."
There has been several unfulfilled promises to move the encampment, Quinlan said. She said faculty members told her and other students that the encampment would be cleared last year. But it still remains, and the only thing that has changed is that a fence has been put up between the encampment and the campus parking lot.
The city removed people who were refusing assistance from the encampment last October, and city manager Debbie Laurie said they're still working to connect other unhoused people staying in encampments with help.
"A number of them have housing vouchers, and we are working through that," Laurie said.
Laurie said Monday was the first time that city council members have heard directly from students, and she said their delivery was impactful.
"To think that we are not committed to their safety is not accurate," Laurie said. "We've had conversations with the university in general, but to hear the stories in general ... that was a much different narrative than what has been shared with us in the past. I think as a community, we have to be willing to speak to everyone that is impacted and understand how a situation, whatever it is, is impacting their ability to go about their lives and to live their lives here in our community. We're committed to balance. We want to make sure that the needs of all community members are met."
Laurie said the city can't make everybody happy, and some decisions may affect different people in different ways.
Quinlan said she would like to see people who are living in the encampment have a better way of life.
"I would like to see camp city get smaller, and that's not just from a selfish standpoint," Colby said. "I would like to see these people get help."
Laurie said the city plans to meet with students and university members again during the first few weeks of March to see what, if any, steps need to be taken to resolve students' concerns.
But the longer the city waits to enforce change, the more unsafe students say they feel.
"They're responsible for what hasn't happened," Quinlan said. "And they're going to be responsible for if something does happen in the future."