The Bradley University Police Department will host a “Coffee with BUPD” event 2 p.m. Jan. 30 in the Garrett Cultural Center.
This is the first event of its kind at Bradley. BUPD Chief Brian Joschko was first introduced to the idea of coffee with a police officer during a conference last summer.
“It’s our first event, and while there has been talk of doing other ones in the future, we really are focused in on the first event and on making sure that it’s productive before we schedule another one,” Joschko said.
According to Joschko, the meeting will give everyone on campus an opportunity to chat with regular duty officers in a casual environment. He said it will hopefully work to build stronger relationships between the officers and the Bradley community.
“It is a nationwide series of events and programming, but specifically [Coffee with BUPD] came out of conversation with individuals from Student Affairs that were looking for a continuation of their series talking about social injustice and other issues that are arising across the country and, specifically, on college campuses,” Joschko said.
Coffee with BUPD will be the first in a four part semester-long programming theme, “The Conversation Continues.” This series is intended to host conversation about the diversity and inclusion of all students on campus, according to Norris Chase, Office of Multicultural Student Services Interim Director.
“Our main goal with this programming theme is to encourage students to not only listen, share and learn about critical issues, but we want to empower students to think critically about issues and, ultimately, be problem solvers who are solution-oriented,” Chase said. “That process does not come without first having a dialogue about the issues first.”
The second part of the series will be “Teaching Ferguson,” featuring guest speaker Bryant K. Smith Thursday, Feb. 5. The third event is still to be announced but will take place in the Garrett Cultural Center March 2.
The fourth event is a diversity conference April 11, with time and location yet to be announced. More information about “The Conversation Continues…” can be found on the Multicultural Student Services webpage.
