Week 4 Make Up Entry 1
I, for one, have never had to worry about the problem of violence on USF’s campus. I personally feel safe while I am on campus. Of course, I don’t live on campus, so I can’t say for certain that I’m saying something true. I remember once last semester where we were visited by a campus police officer in our University Experience class. Violent crimes, according to the officer, were a problem on campus. However, one of the things she said to reassure us was that these crimes all usually occur in certain more abandoned areas of campus, like the area between Maple and 50th street. Hence, it doesn’t seem to be as much a problem to us provided we aren’t out there alone. I do know that there are a lot of people out there who might wish to harm people who venture into their areas. But this campus safety issue seems to more be an issue of staying in safe areas of campus during the night hours and not going out alone to secluded sections of campus. However, that doesn’t mean that improvements can’t be made. First off, I don’t see a lot of call boxes around anywhere. This seems most prevalent in the section of campus reserved for the dorms. Having been down to that area a few times with friends, I most certainly didn’t see a lot of emergency call boxes out there. Second, I don’t see the police around much. This could just be that I’m not where they are, but it doesn’t seem very often that I’ll see the USF police out in their cruisers patrolling. Third, the police need to consider moving their headquarters to a more central region of campus to increase their presence. Currently, they are stationed out on the outskirts of campus near Fletcher Avenue. It would do wonders for people if they knew that the police were in plain sight from most areas on campus, and we still have a lot of open ares to build a new building in.