“I definitely felt safer two years ago at UT. Walking late at night alone never crossed my mind as being unsafe,” said Ali Mathe.
On April 17, the induction of the new Student Government Executive board will take place, and Mathe is focusing on student’s safety.
Next semester, approximately 1,200 to 1,800 students and 300 transfer students will be attending UT, and Mathe hopes to educate them from the beginning.
“I am very excited for more students, and I hope this will increase our school spirit. We will have speakers at orientation about safety, so all students are aware of issues on our campus,” Mathe said.
“With problems on our campus, some students feel administration is not making students aware of safety issues at UT. Our school is located in a diverse area, so students need to know all issues on our campus,” says Dakota Rosa, a sophomore.
The new executive board plans to improve on raising awareness on our campus. So far, students have been learning more information about issues from The Minaret and each other than from administration, Mathe said.
“I attend SG meetings, and that’s where I find the most impact. SG held an interesting speaker on rape and discussed other safety matters just a few weeks ago,” said Rosa.
Mathe has her priorities set.
“I think rape crimes are a big issue on our campus. With the increase in students reporting rape, we can work on improving security, increasing awareness, and teaching rape prevention,” says Mathe.
Some say publicity has made it seem like there is more crime.
“This is my fourth year at UT, and I feel like the [crimes] are just more publicized. There has always been crime at our school, but now students just know more about [it],” says Singlar, a senior.
“We need to focus on other colleges and learn from their mistakes and improvements. Security has one goal, and that should be to keep students safe,” Singlar added.
UT was presented with different safety obstacles to overcome this semester, but Mathe is hopeful.
“We can and will improve safety on our campus. We are going to triage different options before we educate our student body,” said Mathe.