Walking down the street, trudging through brittle snow to classes, or merely bar hopping with a few friends should be a pleasant experience, right? We as civil human beings assume people to be humane and somewhat rational. Many community colleges and public and private universities, even the 50k/year Ivy Leaguers, have severe difficulties diminishing the disturbing crime persisting at educational institutions throughout cities and communities.
Parents frequently worry about safety issues for their children when they go away to college, local or not. When you hear about things like campus mugging, assaults and thefts, it’s only natural to be concerned about the condition of the college that you or a loved one of yours attends.
Fortunately, at the respective Madison Area Technical College, the wonderful Public Safety services have accomplished tremendous feats in creating a reliably harmless educational experience. College students can roam freely without worrying about being victimized after polishing off their day of strenuous coursework.
Colleges are not perfect. The Illinois Institute of Technology has “more robberies, burglaries, aggravated assaults and vehicle thefts on campus than off (out of 25 colleges).” Harvard has potentially the most sexual assaults, such as rape, in the
country. At the Truax campus in 2009, there were 35 counts of burglary within the confines of its school grounds. Optimistically (thank you, Public Safety), in the last year alone, Truax campus burglaries went down 291 percent.
No, that is not a typo. That is a huge improvement in a few short years, and their services and contributions are not slowing.
Outside of pocketing and stealing expensive school property, Madison College has very few counts in possession of alcohol or drugs on school premises. Considering we are living in one of the most progressive cities in the country, with what some would call a party reputation, it appears that our student population is responsible while on school property. Going to class inebriated isn’t hilarious, we seem to be doing well in taking this seriously.
Although crime-related activities were successfully plummeting in 2011, the student body could still make some small sacrifices to reduce crime levels and help aid public safety. Some solutions are obvious: Stop stealing purses and projectors, and report crime when you know of it.
Community and student awareness helps. If someone at one of the Madison campuses doesn’t appear to be a student and looks to be acting suspicious, it would be appropriate to notify someone that works for the school. Safety is an important element in solidifying a sense of security while rummaging through your locker.
For more information on campus safety at various colleges, check out www.thedailybeast.com.