<p>I live in Los Angeles and have always wondered why any parent would want their D or S to attend USC. There was a fatal stabbing of a USC student last night on campus. Locally we often here of lesser incidents on or near campus. The campus is located in one of the worse neighborhoods.
I know that my D gets home at all hours, part due to theater obligations and part due to her social life. I rarely worry about her safety as she is at a extremely safe campus in a safe location. This was a priority when choosing a school. When my niece went to USC, we worried about her.
it is just sad that a school with a decent reputation is not safe. I am sure there are other great schools that have had the neighborhoods around them deteriorate. Has it affected their enrollment?</p>
<p>From the past threads on this forum concerning the U of Southern California, your perception of the USC neighborhood as crime-ridden is exaggerated.</p>
<p>I have lived in Los Angeles my whole life, 20 minutes from USC, There is nothing exxagerated about the crime in the area surrounding USC. USC does have safety measures in place, but students do not stay on campus 24/7.</p>
<p>I can find no information on this. Do you have a link?</p>
<p>In reality, there's nothing to stop the criminal element from migrating from one neighborhood to the next. Chilling but true.</p>
<p>That being the case, the question then becomes is what does USC do to try and make its surrounding area as attractive as possible for the right element of law abiding people. The answer is that, over the last decade, USC has put forth an extraordinary effort to uplift the surrounding area. I'm aware of this since my husband has been on the USC faculty since 1986 and I reguluarly see the news annoucements and attend USC events where they speak to how many volunteer hours and monetary donations (there is a specific campus fund that faculty, staff and, yes, students dontate to) are given to this effort. It is one of USC's priorities. </p>
<p>Even Pete Carroll, the football coach, goes out into these neighborhoods to meet with the people and no, it's not just to recruit new players.</p>
<p>Info from USC:</p>
<p>I regret to inform the USC community of the tragic death of one of our own. Cinematic Arts student Bryan Richard Frost was stabbed during an early morning off campus altercation, and was pronounced dead after transport to California Hospital. After the stabbing, the assailant fled the scene. The incident is being aggressively investigated by LAPD. I know that you all join me in sympathy for Bryans family and friends. Anyone affected by this tragedy is asked to contact the Student Counseling center at 213 740 8742 or Student Affairs at 213 740 2421. </p>
<p>Sincerely, </p>
<p>Michael L. Jackson<br>
Vice President for Student Affairs</p>
<p>Sent by Carey Drayton to Commuter Students, Resident Students, Students (all), Faculty, Staff (e-mail accounts) through USC Trojans Alert</p>
<p>You received this message because you registered on USC Trojans Alert. To update your account go to <a href="https://trojansalert.usc.edu/myhome.php%5B/url%5D">https://trojansalert.usc.edu/myhome.php</a></p>
<p>Well JC, you can't find a much safer college environment than Chapel Hill, NC, yet a student was shot to death there earlier this year. I believe she was killed while being carjacked.</p>
<p>Just to correct the OP, this incident was off campus. Here's a link to a summary report: University</a> of Southern California OTR: 22-Year-Old USC Student Fatally Stabbed 3 Blocks North of Campus</p>
<p>I think it's rather insensitive to start your post with what amounts to an accusation against parents who want their kids to attend SC. I hope the victim's parents don't read CC! There are many reasons why a student would want to be an SC student, and many parents who understand that their children eventually grow up and make choices about where they live and what path they pursue. Some are comfortable with that happening at 18, and some later. </p>
<p>It's very upsetting to think of one's child in a dangerous environment, but that seems to be getting more common around the campuses of many large universities lately (UNC, University of Washington, Auburn, to name a few). I think one reason these large universities seem unsafe is that the vast majority of students live off campus. If only SC had room for 4 years of on-campus living, this would be one very happy mom.</p>
<p>Crime happens everywhere JC. </p>
<p>And it seems to me, considering its location, USC does a good job keeping students safe.</p>
<p>"I think one reason these large universities seem unsafe is that the vast majority of students live off campus."</p>
<p>The vast majority of crimes committed against students (rapes, sexual assaults, assaults, robberies, burglaries) are committed by other students. It is virtually always more dangerous ON the campus than off.</p>
<p>USC's campus itself is safer than Stanford's or UCLA. Yes, tragic horrible things happen. I was very unhappy to wake up this morning and find that email in my mailbox. But personally, that just means that I will continue to be careful and smart off campus- walk with groups at night, don't get into arguments with people, use the transportation opportunities offered to me if I need to leave campus etc... While I will accept the fact that USC isn't the safest school in the world, I don't think that means that is a reason to deride my parents for allowing me to go here, or my own judgment in choosing the school. I have had an awesome educational experience, and have been able to live in something far nearer to the real world than on many other campuses. My volunteer activities aren't far away from me- instead, I get to help a community that needs help and is near to me. I have a far more personal connection in the work that I do as a result.</p>
<p>Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident - see the links below. I visited campus last year and within 30 minutes of our arrival there was a shooting right by one of the main campus gates (story in first link). We had trouble getting back to our car for all the cops and ambulances. It's a tough neighborhood.</p>
<p>14-year-old</a> shot near USC campus - News</p>
<p>Man</a> dies in shooting near campus - News</p>
<p>When</a> crime on campus gets personal - News</p>
<p>DPS</a> reports gang fight at Superior - News</p>
<p>I had parents with a lot of anxieties.
I was expected to learn to swim in water that only came up to my knees, my father had to turn down a big promotion, because my mother wouldn't agree to a move to San Francisco & except for one trip to Disneyland, we never traveled out of state or even east of the mountains.</p>
<p>But I took up river rafting to get over my parent induced fear of water, my oldest's first plane trip was to Costa Rica with her school & my youngest daughter spent three weeks in Ghana this past winter & is going back next spring. ( not to mention- this same girl who hates to go in the unfinished basement, just returned from a solo trip to Vancouver B.C last weekend ;) )</p>
<p>My oldest began college a week before 9/11, and just over a month later, when I was visiting her for parents weekend, my 11yr old daughter and I learned that the mother of a friend had been brutally attacked & killed *in her home * while her daughter was at a before school music lesson. This was in one of the most desirable & family oriented neighborhoods in the city. ( and no arrests were ever made)
$%^ happens.</p>
<p>We can & should be alert, informed & aware, but being afraid is the biggest risk of all.</p>
<p>
[quote]
We can should be alert, informed & aware, but being afraid is the biggest risk of all.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>nicely done!</p>
<p>Emeraldkity4: Right on target!</p>
<p>Nikara: I am impressed with the work students like you put into the Good Neighbors campaign, and other efforts that USC puts forward to uplift the community around it. There is a positive payback from this, and it's great to hear that you are personally experiencing it.</p>
<p>Id also mention that I was raised in the * suburbs*, not so far from where the Microsoft campus is. We * rarely* even went to the city, not even with my friends when I was older.
But by the time I had kids, I knew I didn't want to raise them in those particular vanilla burbs & we moved to the city. By the time my youngest was in high school, I decided to allow her to attend school where she wanted ( in the "inner city"- across the street from a gas station where I have seen myself- open drug deals while police cars were just around the corner), despite my misgivings & I now describe it as the best high school in the region.</p>
<p>I would agree that fighting for your city, and not giving turf over to hoodlums is different than when you are evaluating universities, everyone has to develop their own criteria. But frankly safety as such wasn't a seperate consideration, although public transportation was.</p>
<p>Los Angeles is a big city- & places with high densities of population can seem like they have a high percentage of crimes.</p>
<p>But LA doesn't have any more crime than say Chicago, & I haven't heard anyone turn down U of C, because they didn't like the neighborhood.</p>
<p>The</a> Daily Bruin - Dean of students investigates reports of sexual assault
The</a> Daily Bruin - Sexual assault awareness rises on UCLA campus
CRIME</a>, GUNS, AND VIDEOTAPE: Gunman Opens Fire at UCLA Campus
The</a> Daily Bruin - Students held up at gunpoint
The</a> Daily Bruin - Sex assault near Drake</p>
<p>We discouraged our young for college son from applying to the U of Chicago due to fears of his running through dicey neighborhoods around it (knowing him and his then habits and attitudes). There was an off campus murder in Madison last spring, after students had chosen their next fall apts and signed leases, we are relieved he had chosen a different area for this year. Too late to change our minds, our mantra for the schools he didn't apply to or go to is "there's always grad school".</p>
<p>
[quote]
I live in Los Angeles
[/quote]
Part of the reason that you are so aware of the dangers of USC is that you do live in Los Angeles. It's local news to you. Do you know of the dangers of Harvard or MIT (assaults in Harvard Square and nearby Kendall Square)? How about BU or BC? I know of those risks because it's local news to me. But I doubt it gets reported in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Taking your logic, then, no parent would ever want a kid to go to college in New York City (after all, don't we all watch Law and Order?) Crime in New York? Oh, my! In fact, no one should even visit New York, or Boston, or Los Angeles, or Atlanta or any urban area.</p>
<p>But there are those of us for whom the risks are worth the rewards. The vast majority of people in New York, or Boston, or Los Angeles, or Atlanta are never victims of a violent crime. And for some of us, living in the bucolic countryside would lead us to suicide!</p>
<p>One cannot live in fear. Learn to be street smart, and you can receive a fabulous education in an urban setting, both on and off campus.</p>
<p>^^ Well said.</p>
<p>My parents sent me to USC from a rural community where we didn't even lock our doors and left the keys in the car. Were they apprehensive? Sure, but it turned out great. I started just a few years after the riots, and have noticed the tremendous improvement of the area. I love this campus and the surrounding neighborhood. Is it the safest place on earth, no, but nowhere in metropolitan LA is.</p>