A chaotic Saturday night during Homecoming weekend has NIU’s chapter of the NAACP asking serious questions about the safety of people attending events on and off campus, as well as who is held accountable when things go wrong.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People hopes that answers will be forthcoming at a special panel presentation at its regular meeting at 8 p.m. Monday at the Stevenson Towers Fish Bowl Room.

“The goal of this panel is to address concerns of the people in the community regarding hosting events,” said Meagan Shade, NIU NAACP president.

Concerns generated over the handling of an Oct. 19 event staged at The Dungeon, 1029 Hillcrest Drive. About 1,500 people were trying to get into the nightclub that has a capacity of 500. Only about 300 were inside the club at the time.

Shade wants to know what can be done in the future to avoid such occurrences.

“We had several concerns about the party at The Dungeon that Saturday, like the amount of force used and who was in control,” she said. “Now the question is what can we do in advance to provide a safe environment for parties on and off campus.”

DeKalb Police Chief Bill Feithen defended the police department’s response.

“I think we responded appropriately,” he said. “We are responsible. When we have an incident, we have to make sure that we protect the people in the area and maintain control in the area. Pepper spray was used because there were people that were a specific threat to the officers.”

NIU NAACP Secretary Nicole Arnold said she wants someone to take responsibility for what happened.

“At the meeting, we have a lot of questions we want answered regarding equality on and off campus,” she said. “I just hope that they all clear their names, that they let everyone know what part they played in the events of Homecoming weekend. I want to clarify the difference between a campus event and an off-campus event.”

Helping to clarify those differences will be representatives from both NIU and the DeKalb Police Department.

Among them will be University Police Lt. Matthew Kiederlen. He looks forward to clearing up any misconceptions.

“It is invaluable to have a dialogue with the community,” he said. “The police department has no greater asset than the ability to communicate with the public it serves. If we lose that communication and trust, we have lost something that is literally immeasurable.”

Shade said the meeting can be attended by anyone interested. She hopes for a big crowd and a better understanding between students and law enforcement.

“I think to a degree that there is still a racial undercurrent on this campus,” she said.” I think people know what we are trying to do. It’s now time to take action and voice our concerns to the community.”