After a summer of putting it together and a few months of working out the final kinks, we released our Campus Safety report today which will be the baseline of any recommendations that SGA will be making for campus safety over the next few years. As more data is released every year, it is my intention that future SGA administrations will update the document with the relevant information.
One of the interesting things that Tim and I learned as we put the report together surround the incredible inaccuracies and problems that fail to define campus crime reporting standards. The Clery Act which establishes a baseline for where and when campuses report their crime is very unclear about more of the specifics. Campuses that report their crime may appear to be “punished” by having high crime numbers, but the students at schools where crime goes unreported are the ones that really suffer.
Combine that with the unique and interesting surroundings of every campus and it becomes almost impossible to determine what any crime “ranking” derived from studying the Clery Act numbers might actually mean. By putting this report together we can see where some of the problems lie and I know that we can take some major steps to raise student awareness on campus. If students will realize that crime can be a reality, they don’t have to be scared. As the News 14 article quoted me saying,“Students need to realize that there is a problem with crime in some areas in our campus and around campus,” and I was specifically referring to the outer lots and areas around campus where most of the crime associated with UNC Charlotte is happening.
SGA will continue to build a strong relationship with the Department of Police and Public Safety on Campus and we’ll move forward with formulating recommendations and carrying out a successful Campus Safety Walk in the Spring.
