Last week, acting on student concerns aired about the recent crime incidents in neighborhoods surrounding our campus, I hosted a Community Safety Forum to bring together members of the RPI student body, administration, and the Troy community to address the matter from a holistic approach. Mayor of Troy Harry Tutunjian, representatives from Troy High School and Doyle Middle School, Vice President for Student Life Eddie Knowles, Vice President for Administration Claude Rounds, Chief Information Officer John Kolb, as well as representatives from the Troy Police Department and Public Safety, including Director of Public Safety Jerry Matthews, sat down with members of the Student Senate for three hours of intense discussion on the topic of community safety.
RPI Public Safety and the Troy Police Department have done a fantastic job investigating and apprehending suspects, and despite the crimes that occurred several weeks ago, it should be noted that none of the crimes occurred on the campus itself. During the CSF, Matthews made an excellent point about this situation, noting that it was not a trend but rather a spike. And as one member of the Student Senate put it, we need to look at that spike as the activation energy to examine and address the underlying causes of these crimes.
The goal of this forum was not only to facilitate the apprehension of people who commit crimes against RPI students—enforcement—but also to prevent these crimes from happening to begin with—deterrence. I was very pleased with the commitment exemplified by everyone who participated in the round-table discussion, especially guests from the Troy community.
There’s a role for all of us to play, and for students it is as simple as reporting criminal activity whenever we see it. It also involves taking advantage of the many services that RPI offers, to name a few: self-defense courses, Public Safety’s escort service, and their crime alerts. In recent years, the City of Troy has cracked down on the absentee landlordism which has afflicted neighborhoods across the city, with those around campus being no exception. However, this requires the cooperation of those around us. We have to act as eyes within the community that bring the situations to the attention of the authorities, who have developed a comprehensive plan to encourage landlords to rectify situations without immediately resorting to penalties.
There’s no lever we can pull to deter people from committing crimes; you have to attack the environment that fosters it. To that end, we asked ourselves what elements of the environment contributing to this particular situation we can control.
Let’s start with the properties around campus. Those that are ill-maintained and poorly lit undermine our safety, both by creating specifically unsafe situations (obstructed walkways, malfunctioning locks, and the like) but also by undermining the overall atmosphere of our neighborhoods. To that end, I have determined that the problem with absentee landlords is not just a question of student rights, it’s a question of our safety and our commitment to our community. As such, we are ramping up our efforts against them to ensure that the Troy community is as safe as it can be.
Several of the other ideas generated from this extensive discussion on community safety included developing post-crime notifications (once suspects are apprehended), strengthening communication between Public Safety and Troy Police Department, increased student awareness as to what constitutes an emergency, translating safety materials into several languages, developing off-campus emergency boxes, and forming a community responsibility program with local colleges.
Finally, while we’re on the issue of safety, I believe it is important to point out that when emergencies occur on campus, it is imperative that students be notified of any danger; however, this can only happen promptly if there is appropriate and current contact information for every student. The Student Senate discussed this recently, particularly concerns with relation to student privacy about collecting and updating contact information in the Student Information System. My response has generally been this: the Institute already has your grades, your medical records, and probably a pretty good idea of your credit background. Giving them your cell phone number and current address and making sure both of these are updated at all times isn’t much by comparison. I have been assured that the information will be held in the highest of confidence, for use only in extreme situations, so I ask that you consider providing this information to RPI if and when the time comes, and make sure you update it in SIS once in a blue moon.
Please e-mail me if you want to hear more about the “action items” that were developed during the Community Safety Forum or if you are interested in getting involved in any way: gm@rpi.edu.
