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Nicole Young, a senior nursing major, says she is becoming more and more concerned with her safety as she has to walk further north down Martin Luther King, Jr. drive to reach her classes in the nursing building. She says motorists aren’t mindful of pedestrians and evening walks alone can be frightening because the nursing facility is not close in proximity to the main campus.The number of students attending Winston-Salem State University has exceeded all expectations. Today more than5,000 students walked the campus.The growth in student population, coupled with a plethora of new building construction, has lead to increased awareness of security on campus. Faculty, staff, students and parents of students at WSSU are all in agreement that campus security is a major issue, especially in light of the arrest last fall of an alleged murderer in a residence hall.
Breaching of Security”The worst problem we have is students’ breaching of security in the residence halls,” Linda Inman, director of housing and residence life, said.Chief Willie Bell echoes Inman. “The kids just don’t understand not only are they putting themselves in danger, but they are breaching security for their classmates, also.”In September 2003, Jeremy Murrell, a former WSSU student accused of murder in Virginia was residing with his girlfriend in Rams Commons while police searched for him. Once police were led to Merrill’s girlfriend’s apartment in Building 2, residents became more and more concerned with their safety. Bell says that because of the nature of Rams Commons’ independent living, it was easier for such an incident to occur.Linda Inman, Director of Housing and Residence Life oversees housing matters for all residence halls except the privately-owned and operated Rams Commons community. She says security issues are heavily taken into consideration. As a result, all residence halls are monitored during peak hours, from 8:30 a.m.-4 a.m. Inman said that students continually prop doors open in the dormitories, allowing anyone to gain access to the residents, including persons that may be of threat to residents. Bell referred to the Clery Act as something to be mindful of.The act is named in memory of the late Jeanne Cleary who was a student at Lehigh University in the late 1980s. Cleary was raped and murdered in her residence hall. Her parents discovered that the students of LU were unaware of the crimes that had taken place at the university in the three years prior to their daughter’s incident. As a result, all United States universities, public and private, are required to disclose crime statistics on their campuses and surrounding areas to the public.To combat such incidents, Rams Commons has a clause in their assignment of fees to violators of the “propping door open” offense, charging them up to $50 should they be caught on camera or in person in the act of propping doors open. Facility manager, Felicia Chacere says that residents assistants, or RAs, heightened their awareness on foreign visitors in the halls in response to the incident. Campus police are able to monitor the remaining halls through cameras that many students don’t even know exist.
Cameras Monitor Students
Ashley Blacktree, a junior, requested a ride from the lower Rams Commons parking lot to her residential building. When she called for an escort, her request was denied for an unknown reason. However, the campus police informed her that monitors stategically placed around campus would follow her.Blacktree said this didn’t make her feel safer. She doubts cameras can zoom into her specifically when she’s walking from the parking lot.”Although Chief Bell encourages all students to report if campus police refuse to escort them (unless the request is based on reason such as “I don’t want to walk in the rain in the middle of the day, so I’ll call campus police), he verified that there are cameras monitoring student activity all over the campus.”We have a 24-hour Monitoring Lab that was installed last year,” said Bell. The lab monitors more than 16 different locations on campus, including parking lots, and MLK Drive. However, the cameras aren’t always monitored. The only problem with new, high-tech lab is that of the eleven patrolmen, Chief Bell, Lt. Marcus Sutton and the two secretaries, there isn’t always somebody to monitor the cameras.”As we (the university) grow more and get more buildings, we’re asking to get more people also,” said Bell. “That’s where students can help. “If they voice their opinion, the university will take heed to what they say they need.”
Off-campus danger On Jan. 14 confusion broke out at the Millenium Center in downtown Winston-Salem during a party hosted by a campus group erupted into a major police incident, with gun shots fired by patrons. The trouble followed club patrons to campus, causing campus and city police to get involved in securing the campus. Art Malloy, Associate Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs, was notified by campus police as soon as the disturbance was brought on campus. On Jan. 15, a detailed letter was issued under every students’ door on campus advising them on how to stay out of harm’s way as they participated in social activites off-campus.”Enough is enough,” said Malloy. “When you see students bringing off-campus fights on-campus, you have to draw the line.””Once I heard of some of things going on I felt like it was a necessity to send out a notice to students not to frequent any place known to have violence.”Malloy says that the school is trying to solicit student interest in activities like bowling and skating nights, special guest speakers, student-organized gym jams and other activities that”Hopefully, after awhile students get to the point where they’ll begin taking advantage of the activities the university has to offer on a say a Friday night, rather than frequenting establishments known to be associated with danger.”Malloy, who oversees judicial matters at the university, has worked at WSSU for five years. He says the administration is well aware of the persons involved in things that cause disruption on and off-campus.”I’ve seen a couple of groups, without naming the groups, that have become more and more unruly. We’re addressing them one by one. It’s not as if we don’t know who’s doing what.”
WSSU is better in some areas
According to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Statistics, there were no accounts of murder, forcible sex offenses, nonforcible sex offenses or negligent manslaughter at WSSU for 2000-2002. There was one account of robbery in 2001, two accounts of arson in 2002, and one, five and one account(s) of aggravated assault in 2000, 2001 and 2002 respectively. Compared with a the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, whose size is comparable to that of WSSU with enrollment at about 4,400, the statistics are similar.The OPE publishes these crime statistics for all college campuses in the U.S. annually. Statistics for 2003 will be available this spring.