Trooper Day

If you had been on Cleveland State’s campus this past Wednesday, you would have seen dozens of state troopers, the SWAT van, mobile crime labs, the canine unit and the mounted unit all up and down East 18th Street. If you thought we were under siege by a deranged gunperson, no one could blame you. But wait—all is well. It was “Trooper Day”, with the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Pennsylvania State Police coming to recruit students. Many students did think something was wrong and were afraid to come over to that side of campus. We had to go over and convince them that everything was OK.

The PA State Police landed a helicopter on the soccer field, and that was a big hit. I have a photo of our director standing by the helo with the pilot and a couple of troopers. I told him the caption should be “Governor Klein arrives in the state helicopter”. The troopers were happy with the number of applicants they had and they want to do it again next year. We have some ideas on how to make it more welcoming: balloons, a DJ, and a popcorn machine. We also want to do it earlier, since we stood in a freezing cold, rainy wind all day. And the helicopter? Turns out he landed on the wrong field. He should have been on the practice field—they had to chase him off because there was a game scheduled that same day.