Since you live in Texas, your mother’s co-worker probably doesn’t know much about Cleveland and thinks of it as a scary place… But type 'university circle’in YouTube and show the resulting video to your mom.
Sure, it’s not exactly where Cleveland State is located, but it IS Cleveland and it probably doesn’t match what her coworker 's said about the city .
This being said, yes it’s a bit dangerous in that area of the city, but nothing like the scary parts of NOLA.