News

Students, police evaluate campus safety at night

By Heather Embrey
hembrey@mscd.edu

Students, faculty and staff members joined the Auraria Campus police department on a safety evaluation walk around campus the night of Oct. 6.

Auraria Police Chief Heather Coogan organized the walk, which was the first of what planners hope to be an annual Safe Campus Night.

"I have been talking with various groups around campus and found that we needed to address certain safety issues," Coogan said. "Because of the new housing facilities, we need to make sure we address these concerns now, while we have time to work on them."

The meeting began in a conference room, where several members of the faculty and staff and a few concerned students were gathered. After being split into groups, each was assigned a zone on campus to patrol and cite as many safety issues as they could. The four main concerns were adequate lighting, visible signage, unsafe landscape and lack of phones or communication devices. Each person was equipped with a small hand flashlight and a map on which they could record any safety issues they came across.

The goal Thursday night was to affect changes in the campus environment so all the users of the campus could feel safe, secure and protected, as well as in control. By allowing members of the campus to patrol the areas as if they would on a regular basis, the police department could compile data in a report and try to fix the problems. With that in mind, the groups began citing several problems in and around the buildings.

In one group, led by Bill Trimble, who is part of the Structural Trade and Management department, they noticed a lack of emergency phones in the inner parts of the campus. In several lower-level parking lots, there are emergency phones and call buttons which signal the Auraria police to that location if pressed.

The main concern was that there needed to be more of these devices around the central part of the high traffic areas, such as 10th Street and Curtis.

As the group moved on, their concern grew as they walked into dim and poorly-lit walkways. They found that by adding a few more lights in certain areas, they would feel much safer walking at night.

On her way to the light rail station on Colfax, Metro student Sara Meyer, 21, was glad to see a group designed to flesh out the unsafe conditions and make the campus more secure.

"I want to see more maps around the campus directing me to pay phones and emergency kiosks," Meyer said. She said the maps that are on campus now need to be bigger and illuminated.

Metro President Stephen Jordan joined the groups and walked around, also addressing the issues of safety. He said he was really pleased with the way the meeting went and was happy to hear all of the comments and concerns that the groups discussed after they came back from their patrols.

"There are over 36,000 students on campus and they (Auraria Police) are doing a real service to them. With the evolution of the off-campus housing, it's great to see a program like this really taking off," Jordan said. "I'm really proud of officer Coogan for organizing this tonight."

The reports on the safety findings will be compiled and be available online within the next few weeks.