The tourist attractions
can wait. When B.J. Jenkins travels abroad, she first has to check out the
local police station. “I always have a lot of questions about how police
work in different countries,” says the 22-year member of the College's
safety staff.
So, while others are
taking in the sights, she makes a point of touring the control centers at
local and campus police stations, asking lots of questions about how they
deal with members of their communities, particularly visiting foreign
students who may not be familiar with local laws and customs.
“One thing I've
learned is that most countries are much tougher on crime than we are in
the U.S.” She also has learned that police in many other cultures deal
with people who have a lot more at stake than most Americans. “People in
some countries are willing to die for things that we take for granted,”
she said. “Things like freedom.”
Her interest should come as no surprise to those who
visit her at her post in the Nott Memorial, where she often fills the
quiet moments with books and articles on criminology. It all began when
she was a student at the University of Washington. “I was involved in
lots of demonstrations,” she recalls. “Things like sit-ins and marches
against the war and for equal opportunity. But I didn't do anything
violent, and I never got arrested.”
Fascinated with how
police and campus safety officers learned to deal with student unrest, she
became a campus security officer while still a student at UW. Later, she
served as secretary to university President Charles Odegaard. While in
both positions, she continued to demonstrate. “I would always tell my
supervisor or the president what I was doing, and I always did it on my
own time.”
Born in Mobile, Ala., and
raised in Seattle, she found her way to Schenectady in 1971.
B.J. (aka Betty Jean)
joined campus safety at Union in 1977 (as the first woman on the force)
while taking classes toward her associate's degree in criminal justice
from SCCC. In 1982, the year her second child, Cy, graduated from Union,
she embarked at Union on an organizing theme major with an emphasis on
campus safety issues for women. She earned her bachelor's degree in
1988.
All but one member of her
family graduated from Union. Her husband, Solomon, earned a master's in
engineering. Cy graduated in 1982, Jill in 1994. (Darryl, her eldest,
graduated from UW.)
She and her husband live
in the Pine Bush in a passive/active solar home that their son, Cy,
designed while a student at Union.
A longtime volunteer for
the Schenectady Rape Crisis Center, she has worked as a counselor for
raped and battered women, and regularly assists women on campus. As a
member of the Albany alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, she has
been involved with a number of community service projects.
Of taking her post in the
Nott, she recalls, “I was worried I might get bored in here. But
there's hardly ever a quiet moment.” Beside the exhibits and special
events, there is no shortage of traffic in the form of curious visitors.
“People come in here with all kinds of questions, like 'What is this
building for?'”
She recalls a number of
campus incidents that still bring a smile – streakers at basketball
games, the morning she had to alert President John Morris to stay in his
house because a black bear was loose on campus, or the time she stumbled
upon two women doing a daytime Naked Nott Run. “I said, 'Girls, I
won't ask you for ID, but I suggest you run as fast as you can.'”
After retirement in the
next year, she plans to earn a Ph.D. in criminology. This winter, she
plans to visit Israel and England, with some stops at police stations.