To see a video on Safety Week, click here.
Transparency and openness — two words some may consider necessities. To Chancellor Michael Martin, an open campus poses a safety hazard to students, faculty and staff.”Universities are intended to be open, transparent public spaces,” Martin said. “Yet, we live in a time where those characteristics can cause some fairly serious challenges.”Martin said the nature of campus operations invites all kinds of people — “including some who are occasionally dangerous” — to join the community.”Then we have this vast population of people who are easily assaulted and exploited because they’re young — oftentimes naive — and oftentimes feel they are bulletproof,” Martin said.Martin said the combination of these “ingredients” can sometimes create a “place where bad things can happen.””We intend not to let bad things happen without ever giving up the character of a great university,” he said. “And that’s a challenge.”The University is hosting Campus Safety Week this week. Volunteers are all over campus informing students about how to stay safe and what to do in emergency situations.Volunteers handed out key chains Monday with LSU Police and Baton Rouge Fire departments’ phone numbers on them. A safety forum, sponsored by the Staff Senate and the Chancellor’s Office, was held Tuesday to address reactions to emergency situations. Another forum will be held today at 11 a.m.”Every week ought to be Safety Week,” Martin said. “Part of what this week is about is to remind people that we are here to give them a great experience that’s a safe one.”Because the University is “constantly recycling” people each year, Martin said administrators need to make an effort to educate people about the importance of safety on a campus with a population of about 40,000.Whitney Lain, psychology senior, said she doesn’t feel safe on campus because of the break-ins, car thefts and property thefts she hears as a resident assistant.”It is an open, public campus. It’s not private — guarded by gates,” Lain said. “Creepy guys can sneak into the [residence halls] and walk and roam halls.”Martin said he doesn’t want to turn the campus into a police state.”We don’t want to create a place where we are enforcing the law,” he said. “Much more, we’d like to be a place where we are embracing safety and good conduct.”Chester Guidry, mechanical engineering junior, said he feels safe when he’s on campus but thinks the University could be a lot safer.”I’d like to see some officers walking around the Quad at night and at places where students might have connecting travel,” he said. Martin said one issue he’s concerned with is the heavy turnover rate in the LSU Police Department.”That’s hard on us because we have such good officers,” he said. “One of the things we’re going to do is try to create a little more stability among the commissioned officers in the police department.”LSUPD spokesman Maj. Lawrence Rabalais said the department has 65 commissioned officers. But in the last couple of months, he said about four to five officers left for various reasons — some to other departments and others went into the private industry.”It takes a special person to work in this environment,” Rabalais said. “You can’t just pull somebody from any municipality to work here.”Martin said LSUPD is effective enough to always have a presence on campus.”Just the presence of people from our safety programs around is a deterrent to those who would violate the safety and a comfort to those who want to protect it,” he said. “A presence makes a difference, and … it’s a presence that’s not intrusive or intended to be oppressive.”Lain said she sees police officers in their cars riding around, but the University needs to get the word out about crimes on campus more.Shane Marionneaux, geology junior, said students need to be more aware of their surroundings on campus. He said people need to consider walking in groups, in the light or with cell phones ready at night.Casey Landry, construction management sophomore, said when he walks around campus at night, he makes sure to stay cautious.”It all goes back to preparedness,” he said. “There are a lot of people that walk alone at night. People need to notice their surroundings a little more.”Martin said every university in the country paused and tried to relearn how to maintain their respected campuses after shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University and the murders of two international graduate students at LSU.”When something serious happens on this campus or others, we try to learn from it,” he said.—-Contact J.J. Alcantara at [email protected]