To many students, Public Safety is, first and foremost, the party guest that no one wants to show up.
Unfortunately for them, Public Safety seems most visible when students least want to see them: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. It is easy to forget that a lot of their work takes place under the radar, doing things less noticeable than breaking up your party.
A good example of this transpired this weekend, when Public Safety fashioned a plan to curb a string of thefts on campus. With many burglaries taking place in the area of Foss Hill residences, Public Safety stationed a plain-clothes officer in the area and managed to catch the thieves in the act.
Situations like this remind us why Public Safety exists on this campus. They provide resourceful, personalized attention to campus issues that the Middletown Police Department cannot be reasonably expected to provide.
With a student body that often questions the transparency of those in charge, Public Safety should be applauded for their efforts at informing the community of campus happenings. Detailed e-mails are often sent shortly after incidents occur, and the recently released 2004 Uniform Campus Crime Report reveals more information about crime on campus than is required by law.
However, there are still places on campus that stand out to students as unsafe, especially after dark. The CFA is notorious for dark corners and dimly lit pathways. Nearby, the lighting around Fisk Hall is similarly weak. At night, the walk along William Street from High Street to HiRise, LoRise, and Broad Street Books is inadequately lit in addition to the area behind the science center. These complaints of insufficient lighting are not new, and a comprehensive campus lighting plan does exist. But until the University adequately addresses these areas, Public Safety should increase patrols, or at least concentration, on these locations.
If we learn anything from this weekend’s events, it is that a Public Safety presence isn’t always bad news.
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