kept in the dark--Low turnout leaves campus areas unwatched

UNM organized a campus safety walk Tuesday night, but officials said they were disappointed by the low turnout.

More than 75 students, faculty and staff attended the event, but Rob Burford, from the Dean of Students Office, said about 100 students attended last year. He said more students probably attended the walk last year because it was in the wake of an on-campus stabbing.

“I think there was more attention to last year’s walk because of the unfortunate circumstance last spring,” he said. “However, I was still disappointed with the turnout given all of the media publicity.”

When student participation is low, the entire campus can’t be patrolled. In past years, only main campus has been covered, and the north and south campuses have been neglected.

Buford said, in the future, he would like to have enough students to cover main, north and south campuses.

Students were asked to focus on four main areas: lighting, the presence of blue lights, crosswalks and other safety issues, such as uneven pavement or construction sites. They filled out forms highlighting the dangerous campus areas.

Grandon Goertz, from the Safety and Risk Services Department, will review students’ safety reports. He will submit work orders based on the reports. Reports submitted to the work order system can’t be removed until they have been repaired.

Goertz said that safety concerns from last semester’s walk were completed promptly.

“Maintenance here attacks these problems fairly quickly,” he said. “From the last campus walk, around 80 percent were done within three weeks.”

The Campus Safety Walk was canceled in 2006 because of low student turnout. The walks began again last spring when a student was stabbed on campus outside of the Anthropology Building.
The walks occur every semester, but some students do not know this.

Students Tony Hernandez and Skyler Sanders said that they hadn’t heard about the walk last semester, but they heard about the stabbing last spring, and that’s why they participated.

Burford said the University should publish records of the changes made because of the walks.

“It would be nice if we could get more input back and see what’s been done so students could see the fruits of their labors,” he said.

Sanders said he wondered if students’ participation in the walks had any effect. He said knowing this would increase student participation.

“If you see results, then you see, ‘Oh, it’s working,’” he said. “I think more people would come.”