For the Fear of Campo
Bryan Nuckles
Staff Reporter
What is the deal with Campo? As far as I can tell they’re pretty nice people. Just the other week I got locked out of my room, with roommate nowhere to be found and no sign of his returning soon. So I played my get-out-of-jail-free card and called Campo. Now just to be clear I was terrified of the officers that walk around campus. In fact I had my friend call for me because I was afraid of what they would say. Or worse, charge me for the trouble.
Here’s the amazing thing though. The guy was actually really nice.
He was kind of brisk but he had a good sense of humor about the whole thing and I felt more than a little silly for my fears of interrogation… I even felt comfortable enough to release my death-grip on my wallet.
So I am led to wonder, why do so many people on the campus fear Campo? The same reason they fear the police.
“Did I do something wrong?” “Do they know that was me?” “Do they remember that tiny prank from freshman year?”
It’s amazing how many rules you may have broken when you’re staring down a uniform.
I, myself, had a run-in with these feelings when my girlfriend and I were lounging under a tree before the weather began to turn. She noticed an officer walking along a lower path. She immediately stiffened because, as fate would have it, he was looking right at us. “Time to go,” she says cheerily, hopping up and attempting to pull me to my feet. I was just about to start complaining when the officer says something into his shoulder-radio-thing and changes direction, straight towards us. Across a lawn. Uphill.
Maybe leaving wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all.
Then start the questions. “Is it after curfew? There is no curfew. Is there? Is he getting us for PDA? This isn’t high school, of course it’s not PDA. And we were just sitting there! Were we acting suspicious? Were we…?”
He then walks by, ten feet to the side of us as we struggled with how fast we should walk to keep from being suspicious. “Evening,” he says in passing. “Hi,” we garble. He was heading for Blanche, which was right behind us. Ha.
Ever since I actually met one of the guys from Campo I haven’t felt quite so… horrified of one of them approaching me. Maybe he wants to ask about something in Rouzer, or it’s just time to leave the Pub. Either way, as long as you haven’t done anything wrong why worry? They’re people too. In fact if you have Campo fear like me, I strongly suggest that if you see an officer lounging around then you should talk to him. I think you may be surprised.
