The results of a recently released survey show that Georgetown students do not feel safe outside of the Healy gates or along Prospect Street. So far, Georgetown administrators have done an excellent job at addressing this issue, and they deserve recognition.
The voluntary, non-scientific survey conducted in April 2005 by the Student Safety Advisory Board and University Safety was answered by more than 400 students and raised a number of issues concerning student safety on and around campus.
The survey found that students are somewhat confident that the Department of Public Safety makes them safer (58.1 percent), but they still do not feel safe in several areas near campus, particularly Nevils, LXR and Prospect St. behind Village A.
Many students were particularly concerned about getting the blue emergency boxes operational quickly, increasing lighting in public areas and improving SafeRides, a university service that provides transportation for students at night.
Impressively, steps have already been taken to tackle these concerns. Elizabeth McCurtain (CAS ‘06), a student on the advisory board, has worked with the park service to get the foliage along the sidewalk behind Village A removed, and the University has contacted the city government to trim the rest of the trees on Prospect Street. According to Vice President of University Safety David Morrell, more lighting will be installed after the overhanging brush is removed.
To help make Nevils and LXR safer, DPS has stationed a car at the corner of Prospect and 35th St. and has focused its resources and personnel on LXR, where the most thefts have occurred this year. Morrell also discussed the role of the Metropolitan Police Department with Commander Robert Contee, asking for increased patrols and marked cars in West Georgetown.
“We want deterrence,” Morrell said, “We want the marked cars out there until three or four in the morning.”
All of this work marks great progress, but 13 of the 61 bluelight emergency boxes remain non-operational, even though they were supposed to be fully functional by September of last year. Morrell says that facilities is attempting to fix the problems.
One of students primary concerns, SafeRides, also still needs improvement. According to Erin Barbato (CAS ‘06), a student on the safety advisory board, students received key chains informing them of the service, but no suggestions have been made to improve it. SafeRides should increase its late-night hours and the number of drivers in order to answer student calls more promptly.
The University should be commended for responding so fully to these concerns, though the call boxes should be the first priority of University Facilities. The University wants to conduct another survey next April to compare the results; we expect that they will see significant improvement due to their efforts.
