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Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016
Northern Star
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NIU Alerts flood students with repeated alerts; ContactBridge app does not
Student criticizes safety log
Editorial Board Editorials reflect the majority opinion of the Editorial Board; columns reflect the opinion of the author alone.
Leon Kincaid Graduate Student Computational Mathematics
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Hanna Markezich | Northern Star
Point/Counterpoint: NIU student safety NIU’s 2015-16 Annual Safety and Security Report presents statistics on crimes on-campus and certain off-campus sites owned by NIU along with safety policies.
NIU goes above and beyond to protect students across campus
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Perspective
Brooklyn Harper Columnist
Students should feel safe on campus because NIU has taken many precautions to ensure the safety of students. Regardless of the activities happening in the DeKalb area, students have a safe place here. That is the beauty of college campuses; students have independence while still being protected. Wandering
throughout campus, it is guaranteed students will see police cars and the blue lights of emergency call boxes in various locations. Call boxes are connected to the NIU Police and are monitored 24/7, according to NIU’s 2015-16 Annual Safety and Security Report. NIU’s extensive scattering of 25 emergency assistance call boxes located across campus can be used to request help, report a crime, report suspicious activities or emergencies or request an escort, according to the report. Residence halls go even further to protect students by providing security personnel, locks and pin
codes, require a OneCard to access hallways and elevators after 11 p.m. and enforce strict guest policies. Even when there is off-campus crime, students are warned with text messages, emails, voicemails to on-campus landlines and posts to social media from NIU Alerts, according to the safety report. Students have access to information regarding their safety — what they choose to do with that information is up to them. It is possible students may wind up in unsafe situations, but that generally has nothing to do with NIU and everything to do with personal decision.
One step off NIU campus leaves students susceptible to danger Maddie Steen Columnist
While NIU assures it is a safe place for students, I would disagree, especially when it comes to those students who do not live in residence halls. Since the semester started Aug. 22, there have been 13 incidents that occured on campus. Theft, aggravated assault, disorderly conduct and possession of drugs and alcohol were all reported to police from residence halls and academic buildings. Campus sidewalks may be safe
for the most part, but our surrounding community is nowhere near being free from danger. I cannot consider a school safe if the surrounding neighborhood, where a large portion of the residents are students, is an extremely crime ridden area. Last year students received more than 20 updates regarding robberies on Hillcrest Drive, according to NIU’s 2015-16 Annual Safety and Security Report. A crime is considered “on-campus” if it occurred in a residence hall, academic or administrative building and any other property owned by NIU — not including greek houses, according to the report. What is not included in this report are crimes committed on public property or rather those
occurring off-campus. The crimes we get updates about are not recorded in the report. Students are misled to believe NIU is safe but are not as informed about the area surrounding campus. “I feel fine during the day, but campus has a super eerie feeling at night,” said senior psychology major Sarah Obrzut. “Outside of campus, I do not feel safe one bit. We need to work towards an entire crime free community not just campus.” A campus that is in the middle of an unsafe community cannot be deemed safe. Students not living on campus must take extra safety precautions unfortunately like never walking alone at night or staying aware of his/her surroundings.
New and returning college students should be aware that secret records may be maintained about them in spite of the intent of the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act to protect them from such abuse by administrators. After the 2008 shooting at NIU, the Campus Security Enhancement Act was passed, requiring each higher education institution in Illinois to form a campus violence prevention plan and campus threat assessment teams. NIU calls it the Student Threat Assessment Team, and its manual mentions a database used for recording cases. But the Student Threat Assessment Team is not widely publicized on the NIU website, the manual is not available there, and the Faculty Senate minutes even show one administrator claiming “it’s important that we not necessarily have lots of conversations with students about the fact that there’s a Student Threat Assessment Team.” Three other public universities have limited information about its threat assessment teams on its website: Southern Illinois University- Carbondale, University of Illinois Springfield and Western Illinois University. How can a student request access to their records if they are unaware of its existence? If they make a request for all of their education records, it would hopefully be included in the response. I submitted such a request to the Office of Registration and Records to test whether that would be possible, but they predictably replied that I would have to submit requests to a list of other records custodians. After explaining the above facts and suggesting they take on the burden of seeking out responsive records, General Counsel gave an invitation to specify any records I was seeking that were not provided in the list. So no, a student is unable to discover any records which are kept from their knowledge. I suspected the Student Threat Assessment Team database would have records on me and submitted a request for them. What I received back shows the Student Threat Assessment Team was compiling information about me, including my veteran medical records and whether I possessed a Firearms Owners Identification card. These records also mention the lawsuit I filed against the Student Association and a complaint I submitted to the Office of Civil Rights. Neither of those are threatening or concerning behaviors and are entirely acceptable actions within the legal system to protect my rights. Some records are as accurate as rumors, so I also worry how they might affect future decisions against me.
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