<p>Less than a week ago a student was robbed near the East campus. The student lived off campus.</p>
<p>In December an employee was robbed outside a restaurant near campus. Another staff member was also robbed on campus at the beginning of December.</p>
<p>In October three students were robbed in a parking lot across the street from the East campus.</p>
<p>If you look at their weekly crime reports the Duke Medical Center is a crime magnet. Other areas of campus fall into the petty crime arena.</p>
<p>Duke needs to be a better job managing its on campus crime. I have personally sent them the following information from this website run by a former college administrator. One of his articles was used by the FBI Office of Law Enforcement Coordination in their work with colleges and universities.</p>
<p>My own D does not feel comfortable walking the short distance from the library to her dorm. I spoke with the Duke University Police about personal safety alarms for students and they didn't even know what a personal alarm is. The Duke University Police Department does have an arrangement with the City of Durham to patrol in areas surrounding the campus, but it doesn't seem to have helped any.</p>
<p>In Duke's case I don't really know how far an informal arrangement can go. Duke police can't really go off campus to do patrols and usually police departments won't dedicate a lot of manpower to exhaustively patrol a small area at 2am in the morning.</p>
<p>Edit: </p>
<p>Having read the article above, I hope no one is suggesting Duke strictly enforce "Classroom Decorum" and compulsive wearing of IDs...</p>
<p>Unfortunately, if the Duke administrators do not deal with these recurring issues, the tensions betweeen "town and gown" if you will, will only grow more rapidly. Duke will soon become like Penn, a world class institution with a campus safety problem that always seems to be on the back-burner.</p>
<p>I don't think this is as much of a "town and gown" issue as it is a general safety and crime issue. Crime that plagues Duke also plagues the neighborhoods around it.</p>
<p>SBR - In September 2004 Duke University made an agreement to patrol 9th Street and around East Campus. So they already patrol off campus and have for over three years - not that it has made much of a difference.</p>
<p>In November 2007 an international University of Chicago grad student was murdered off campus. According to another poster this caused the University of Chicago to revamp its safety procedures.</p>
<p>Here is what U of C says on its website:</p>
<p>The University is committed to creating a safe and welcoming environment on campus and in our surrounding communities. To realize this goal, the University partners with the city of Chicago as well as neighborhood organizations to improve public safety, transportation, economic development and other aspects of community life. In addition, the University of Chicago Police Department has more than 140 professionally trained officers with full police powers to serve University students and staff, as well as community members. </p>
<p>Students need to feel safe and if the university cannot provide enough housing on campus for its upperclassmen and graduate students it has a responsibility to make safety for its students a priority no matter where they live.</p>
<p>WCM: even if DUPD already patrols 9th and around East, I can't see Durham PD allowing them to go that far off campus to do patrols. Both of those areas are immediately adjacent to university property and it would make sense for DUPD to be allowed to patrol there. </p>
<p>However, from what I understand, the Grad student's location wasn't immediately adjacent to Duke and I don't think either DUPD or Durham PD is eager for DUPD to suddenly become Duke-University-and-Parts-of Durham-within-10-miles-of-campus PD. </p>
<p>When students elect to live off campus in apartments, they should take into consideration the safety risks and act accordingly. Upperclassmen and graduate students are essentially adults. Excuse the trite statement here, but they will soon move out into the real world where this stuff happens all the time (esp. in big cities) and is all around them. What will they do then? In my opinion, there's no need for police to babysit them and put their neighborhoods under 24/7 surveillance. Granted, community safety and awareness initiatives and outreach by the University would be nice and help create a safer environment, but I don't believe there's a need for drastic measures such as sending police swarming into neighborhoods, locking down the campus, and random ID checks.</p>
<p>I personally have not had any problems with SafeRides (typically when leaving Bostock Library after 2 to head back to my apartment), but I can't speak for everyone.</p>
<p>I've never felt unsafe in my time at Duke, but the crimes of the past week have unnerved me somewhat. The campus proper is quite safe -- I don't worry about walking around at any hour of the day or night, and I don't think other students do either.</p>
<p>Durham, on the other hand, is frightening. Students are taught early on -- and for good reason -- not even to walk to Ninth Street by themselves. I'm not sure if the blame falls to Duke or Durham (though I suspect the latter), but either way, the situation is becoming unacceptable. Durham wonders why students tend to stay within the "Duke Bubble": much of it, of course, is that we have everything we need on campus and Durham isn't much of a college town. A big part of it, though, is that Durham, even a few blocks from campus, is unsafe. Nobody should have to deal with that.</p>
<p>Wait, I'm hearing a lot about muggings in the city....if you're like a big guy and with a couple other big guys, shouldn't you be fine?....I mean I'm 6'2, 230lbs. and will most likely play rugby or club football, so it's a good chance I'll be friends with people that are around my size (with the sports I mentioned), and we could easily fend off muggers? Does this make sense? I mean theoretically at least....</p>
<p>So what I'm hearing is that students feel fine on campus, but when they start living off campus things get dangerous? Then does that mean most of Duke's undergrad live on campus?</p>
<p>Freshmen have to live on east campus and sophomore have to live on west. Many juniors study abroad or live on central. The University policy is that a student must stay on campus for 6 semester and then they can live off campus for the last 2. So yes, I'd say that most of Duke's undergrad live on campus.</p>
<p>Dear Member of the Duke University Community, </p>
<p>I write to share my great sadness over the sudden and senseless death of Abhijit Mahato, a graduate student in the Pratt School of Engineering, who was murdered in his off-campus apartment this weekend. Having spoken with Professor Tod Laursen, in whose lab Abhijit was making important contributions, I have a sense of his great promise and endearing character. I extend my sympathy to Abhijit's friends and colleagues and to all members of the Indian and Hindu community for this appalling loss. A celebration of his life will be held in Duke Chapel later this week. </p>
<p>Since news of Abhijit's death was first reported by the Durham Police, many people at Duke have been working to provide support. I am grateful to Professor Laursen and his Pratt colleagues and to our International House for reaching out to students, especially our many international students, at this painful time. The professional staff of CAPS is providing counselling to those who need assistance. I met today with representatives of the Indian Ambassador from Washington to express our grief and concern for Abhijit's friends and family in India. </p>
<p>We have also learned from Durham Police that there has been a spike in armed robberies throughout Durham in recent weeks. This means that recent assaults on Duke graduate students are part of a larger issue. We have received assurances from city authorities that they will make every effort to investigate and resolve these issues. Meanwhile, under the direction of Associate Vice President for Campus Safety and Security Aaron Graves, Duke is increasing off-campus patrols by Duke Police in selected areas near the campus, consistent with our agreement with the city. Since this will divert some police personnel from their usual campus responsibilities, the university is increasing its use of hired security forces to maintain a strong security presence on campus. A meeting is also being scheduled with off-campus landlords to discuss improving security in facilities that have experienced recent crimes. </p>
<p>On Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., an open forum for the Duke Community will be held in the Schiciano Auditorium of the CIEMAS Building. Aaron Graves, Larry Moneta and other university officials as well as representatives of the Durham Police will answer questions and review the things each of us can do to help ensure our own safety. </p>
<p>Finally, anyone with possible information about Abhijit Mahato's death or any of the recent robberies is encouraged to contact the Duke Police at 919-684-2444 or Crimestoppers at 919- 683-1200. </p>