Students feel safer, survey finds
by Michael J. Bruns
Results from a survey conducted last spring report that 85.3 percent of Georgetown students believe Georgetown is “fairly or extremely safe.”
The results of the online survey were released yesterday by the Student Safety Advisory Board. 1,260 undergraduate and graduate students filled out the survey, which found that students generally feel safe on campus.
The numbers are highest for the dormitories, where 97 percent of respondents felt “fairly or extremely safe,” but those numbers are in the 60s and 70s for St. Mary’s, Village A and LXR.
“Those were recognized as problem areas,” SSAB spokesperson Shannon Mullen (COL ‘08) said.
Another concern, Mullen said, was that only 67.4 percent believed that the Department of Public Safety “fosters a safe environment on campus.” That number drops to 19.4 percent for off campus environments.
According to Mullen, new lighting will be installed soon near Village A and St. Mary’s, DPS patrols will increase and the group hopes to foster a stronger relationship with the Metropolitan Police Department to increase safety off campus.
“We’re creating a relationship with Metro so that they and the students are on the same page,” Mullen said.
When asked whether the results were still accurate after the violent incident outside Reiss two weekends ago, Mullen said that, though regrettable, it was probably an isolated incident while the survey focused on long-term student perceptions.
Victoria’s little labor secret
by Sam Sweeney
The Georgetown Solidarity Committee will be protesting outside the Victoria’s Secret on Connecticut Avenue on Saturday. Organizers said that the demonstration is an attempt to pressure one of Victoria’s Secret’s suppliers to reverse its decision to withdraw from a unionized factory.
“Students all over the country are protesting in front of Victoria’s Secrets,” GSC member and event organizer Sara Wallace-Keeshen (COL ‘08) said.
The event on Saturday follows on the heels of a similar effort in which student protestors pressured Nike into resuming business with a unionized factory in the Dominican Republic.
The GSC will be joined by United Students for Fair Trade, another student group at Georgetown, as well as students from George Washington University and American University Wallace-Keeshen said.
