In response to a wave of robberies and violent crime on the campus, the University Senate is planning to hold a forum where students, police, faculty and staff can offer insight on the university’s safety problems.
Issues raised during the forum will provide the foundation for a senate report on campus security, which senate leaders hope will impact security policy at the university. Committee leaders aim to complete the report by April 25.
University Senate Chair James Gates charged the senate’s Campus Affairs Committee last month with examining crime after statistics from the FBI cited the university as the school with the second-highest number of violent crimes in the country among similar institutions in 2006.
Between 2004 and 2005, the number of on-campus robberies doubled from nine to 18, and in 2006 there were 15 robberies.
Gates is attempting to revive a security task force which has been established and dissolved numerous times during the ’80s and ’90s and in 2003. The 2003 task force was established during a year when there had been 12 robberies and six forcible rapes, according to University Police reports.
But this time, Gates has made the task force permanant to eliminate the hassle of establishing a new committee when new security issues arise.
The forum will address not only the recent upswing in crime on and off the campus, but also security administration issues, like reports of misdirected 911 calls from cell phones on the campus and poor lighting in certain areas.
The Campus Affairs Committee held a meeting on Feb. 7 to discuss their new responsibilities and take steps toward fulfilling them.
University Police Chief Kenneth Krouse, who spoke at the meeting on behalf of University Police, encouraged the committee to clarify campus security issues to the rest of the senate.
“When there is an issue or event on campus, it’s hard to give [the senate] the real story,” said Krouse. He said the senate should not rely on the media for its information on security.
The forum will be the first step the committee has taken in compiling the report.
The goal of the forum is “to see safety concerns people on campus have in general,” said Eugene Ferrick, the committee chair and assistant to the dean of the chemical and life sciences college. “It’s to get a pulse on campus – how [students] think.”
Junior government and politics major and Campus Affairs Committee member Jahantab Siddiqui hears numerous complaints about security in his function as president of the Off-Campus Student Association.
“I’m hearing from students that they don’t feel safe walking across campus or walking to Route 1,” he said. “This is ideal because the outcome may shape the campus over the coming years.”
The date and format of the forum have not been determined, but Ferrick stresses that it will be an open forum and wants to invite College Park community members and members of University Police.
Siddiqui expects the forum to be held before spring break.
In addition to the forum, Gates said he wants students on the committee to open lines of communication with University Police.
“The first thing that came to my mind is I would want to have students that meet with Chief Krouse on a fairly regular basis to talk about the campus situation,” he said.
“The ideal outcome will be focusing on some major issues that campus constituency has cited, and [to be] able to give a report to the senate showing that these security concerns are being addressed by the appropriate people,” said Ferrick.
Based on the Campus Affairs Committee’s report, the senate can vote on a resolution that senate leaders hope will have an impact on administration decisions about security. Gates said that though the senate resolutions only have “the power to recommend,” resolutions have a strong impact on the administration.
Contact reporter Nathan Cohen at cohendbk@gmail.com.
