PRESIDENT’S VIEW

WORLD BUILDER Featuring manuscripts, maps and illustrations from the Raynor Memorial Libraries’ famed Tolkien Manuscript Collection and from Oxford University, the new exhibition J.R.R. Tolkien: The Art of the Manuscript is one of the Haggerty Museum of Art’s most popular ever. It’s also a worldclass learning opportunity for these students whose English course meets at the museum.

MU 360°

PHOTOS BY PATRICK MANNING

CAMPUS SAFETY

security solutions

New mobile units with 360-degree cameras and flash lighting help deter crime in off-campus areas such as Kilbourn Avenue — one of several task-force measures already implemented.

BY TRACY STAEDTER

This February, Marquette University, like the rest of Milwaukee, experienced an uptick in crime and heightened concerns around security. In response, President Michael R. Lovell launched the President’s Task Force on Community Safety, making the Marquette University Police Department chief, Edith Hudson, its chair.

Students, parents, staff, faculty and community leaders formed five work groups that, in four short months, developed actionable solutions. Hudson is especially excited to be implementing two recommended measures: a solution for added campus security cameras and lighting, and a new behavioral health policing unit within MUPD.

In a survey, students, faculty and parents identified concerns and made suggestions for ways to improve campus safety. Many wrote that they wanted to see more lighting and surveillance cameras. In response, MUPD purchased two mobile units with 360-degree cameras and lights that can be moved to areas of concern. The obvious presence of the equipment should deter criminals, says Assistant Chief of Police Jeff Kranz. “It also gives people at that location peace of mind,” he says.

A separate report found that in 2021, three non-Marquette individuals on campus accounted for more than 200 calls for police service a year. Although their behavior wasn’t necessarily criminal — screaming, for instance — it was disruptive. In these circumstances, police are “not the right tool for the job,” says Kranz.

A new behavioral health unit is. It will consist of a mental health professional and a law enforcement crisis worker who will identify people in need of mental health interventions and connect them to someone who can help.

Other approved recommendations include expansions to MUPD’s police apprentice-style program; a safety textalert sign-up for parents; additional safety signage; a reimagined student transportation service; and student tours of the Near West Side neighborhood and its resources. “What has always excited me about law enforcement is being engaged with community and coming up with solutions that make everyone’s life better,” Hudson says. ¤

HEALTH SCIENCES future scientists

With a $1.6 million award from the National Institutes of Health, Marquette has become the first university in the Midwest to be named a site for NIH’s U-RISE program, which helps students from underrepresented backgrounds prepare for research-focused graduate programs and careers as scientists. Led by Dr. SuJean Choi, professor of biomedical sciences, U-RISE at Marquette engages undergraduate participants in a rigorous curriculum and lab placements as they cultivate a science identity and sense of inclusion in the science community. “Society portrays scientists generally as male and Caucasian, so these students have few role models,” Choi says. “Research isn’t a commonly considered profession, and we hope to change that.”