<p>This morning's shooting comes after another multiple shooting very close by a few weeks ago. This shooting happened on a block where many Yale frats sit and many off campus Yalies and grad students live. It is essentially on the campus.To date, none of these shootings have involved Yale students, but you got to wonder, how far can you press your luck? New Haven is one of many US cities experiencing an upswing in violent crime and I am not sure of the confidence people have in the YPD to respond to this trend. Look at the comments.</p>
<p>Despite all the statistics Yale produces, massages and reports (what, exactly, is "on campus", for example, at Yale), exposure to violent crime is an issue to consider when contemplating matriculation at Yale, particularly if we are indeed in a multiple year cyclical surge in violent crime.</p>
<p>“It is essentially on the campus.” This is the poster’s opinion. I disagree. In 4 years, I went there 3-4 times, each time to visit a party at one of the frat houses. Not that many undergrads live in off campus housing – especially the dumpy frat houses.</p>
<p>I attended Yale at probably its nadir in terms of physical state and New Haven was still locked in some of its worse economic (and therefore crime) issues. If either of my daughters were to attend Yale, I would instruct them on its realities but would not dissuade them from attending.</p>
<p>I understand that this can be a real issue for families to consider. But it’s all relative and people need to consider what they feel comfortable with.</p>
<p>Natsherman: your sister graduated from Yale recently, right? Would she send her kids there?</p>
<p>Well, if it’s not on campus, it’s close – within a block of Old Campus and on a block that includes the British Art Center and the Yale Rep. Agreed, most students would only be in that vicinity at 2 am on a Saturday of their own volition.</p>
<p>Yale is basically a safe place, so long as students take reasonable precautions, but this incident is a reminder of how important those precautions hare. There have been three murders of Yale students in New Haven in the last 20 years – Christian Prince in 1991, Suzanne Jovin in 1998, and Annie Le in 2009. Le was killed in a secure research facility by an apparently-obsessed coworker. Jovin’s stabbing death remains a mystery – someone must have driven her from campus to a spot near East Rock where she was killed, but whether she was abducted or got in the vehicle voluntarily isn’t clear. Prince was a random robbery victim, headed home to his apartment after a party. </p>
<p>Yale isn’t alone. At Harvard, a non-student was killed in a dorm in 2009, a grad student stabbed a local teenager to death on a Cambridge street in 2003, and a student was stabbed to death by her roommate in 1995. Urban campuses pose risks that students need to be aware of – both before and after they choose a school.</p>
<p>Well, it’s around the corner from the British Art Center, so whether it’s in the same “block” depends on how you define block. It’s certainly not far from campus. It happened at 1:00 a.m. I agree with what T26E4 says about this–safety is not a reason to avoid Yale, although it is a reason to take sensible precautions if you do go there.</p>
<p>I don’t think it is necessarily “pushing our luck.” A key component to many of these murders are the victims’ connection with the murderer. For example, a couple of the shootings I read about involved victims who had a criminal record and were involved with dealing drugs. Assuming that the average Yalies do not deal drugs or have a criminal record, I think Yale is as safe as any other campus. This basically goes back to what Opensecret said, “take reasonable precautions.” Don’t aggravate random strangers, don’t deal drugs, don’t whip out a wad of cash in the middle of the street at 1 a.m., etc.</p>