“Walkabout” exposes safety glitches

Targets for increased safety measures include the Reily parking lot, modular housing and campus emergency phones.

The Office of Violence Prevention and the Office of Student Affairs held their campus walkabout for the semester Wednesday night.

Student leaders and university administrators walked from Willow Street to Claiborne Avenue to assess specific unsafe areas of campus and discuss more general campus security issues.

“We’ve been doing this for more than four years,” said Cynthia Cherrey, vice president for student affairs. “Our objective is to get a combination of students and staff together to discuss campus safety.”

Representatives from Facilities Services, the Tulane University Police Department, the Office of Campus Safety, Student Affairs, the Campus Architect, the Office of Violence Prevention and other offices participated in the walk.

Students first expressed concern about the effectiveness of the emergency phones found across campus because some of the older models are difficult to use.

“The new phones we’re getting have nothing but a button that automatically connects you with the office,” TUPD Chief Danny Lawless said. “We can see the location of your call, so even if all you can do is push the buttons, we’ll know where you’re at.”

The oldest models have both a call and an emergency button, and connecting to campus police has been known to take more than one try. There are only a handful on campus, but there are currently no plans to replace them.

TUPD will add 10 emergency phones on campus and along the campus perimeter.

“Our biggest concern now is students walking off-campus,” Lawless said. “There are new cameras installed or being installed at Willow and Audubon, Broadway and Freret and further down Freret, so you are in reach of a phone as you walk down Freret.”

This is the first time that large numbers of emergency phones will be installed on the campus perimeter.

Members of Facilities Services were on hand to offer suggestions about adding lighting and removing overgrown bushes and trees. Facilities Services recently added lighting on Willow Street by the Student Health Center.

“This semester we’ve been taking out lots of large ginger plants,” Superintendent Tom Armitage said. “It makes for dark hiding areas that are really unsafe.”

Student leaders said they were most concerned about getting lighting for students living in Modular Housing behind the Reily Center.

“To me, the area near Mod is the biggest issue because those kids need to have adequate lighting to make sure that they can travel safely,” Panhellenic President Allie Lieber said. “I’d like to see it light up a little more.”

Both student and administrator concerns will be referred to the Office of Violence Prevention, which is responsible for ensuring that recommendations are considered and acted upon.