2008 Woodie Awards
Security on campus offers students safety
Issue date: 2/19/08 Section: Viewpoints
As the dust settles on Northern Illinois University's campus, we find ourselves asking the same question that came up almost a year ago after 32 people died at Virginia Tech: are we safe on a public college campus?
The answer is a qualified yes. Campus police departments do not expect to have to deal with mass murder, nor should they, and the current security and safety measures are enough to deal with the dangers college students face, such as assault, theft and rape.
With that said, there's always room for improvement. For instance, if someone activates an emergency call box, will the police really be there within a minute, as we were told as freshmen?
The lighting in open areas can be improved so walking from Russell House to Capstone after dark doesn't resemble a stroll down Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Atlanta.
The campus police can be directed to care more about patrolling the darker areas of campus than handing out parking tickets.
All in all, however, the NIU shooting doesn't do anything to shake our current notions of campus safety. We know that we don't want to have to pass through random checkpoints on street corners. We know that we don't want to have to pass through metal detectors to enter academic buildings.
Sometimes we fear a late-night walk home alone, but being gunned down in a lecture hall? The thought hadn't occurred to us.
The answer is a qualified yes. Campus police departments do not expect to have to deal with mass murder, nor should they, and the current security and safety measures are enough to deal with the dangers college students face, such as assault, theft and rape.
With that said, there's always room for improvement. For instance, if someone activates an emergency call box, will the police really be there within a minute, as we were told as freshmen?
The lighting in open areas can be improved so walking from Russell House to Capstone after dark doesn't resemble a stroll down Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Atlanta.
The campus police can be directed to care more about patrolling the darker areas of campus than handing out parking tickets.
All in all, however, the NIU shooting doesn't do anything to shake our current notions of campus safety. We know that we don't want to have to pass through random checkpoints on street corners. We know that we don't want to have to pass through metal detectors to enter academic buildings.
Sometimes we fear a late-night walk home alone, but being gunned down in a lecture hall? The thought hadn't occurred to us.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
jeffjj
posted 2/19/08 @ 9:55 PM EST
It seems like a long time ago, they were in the news.
They did a good, some say very good job.
For free.
For free, they protect people in the area, whether students or teachers or moms or sons or daughters or dads or just plain simple single people passing by. (Continued…)
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