I got my undergrad degree from UT Austin. I was there in the late 80s/early 90s. Your statement is 100% inaccurate.
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YeahâŠbut my daughter goes to a school located in another Texas city, more than twice the size of Austin, and she doesnât experience these problems on or near campus. Itâs a much, much, much smaller school so they are able to provide a level of service that maybe Austin canât (alerts, etc.) but I still would expect Austin to make student safety a pretty high priority.
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This was posted on the parents Safehorn page today by someone else, used with permission.
My daughter lives in west campus. She turned the corner to walk in the front door of her private dorm after class last week (about 3pm) to find a man laying at the door, pants down, sunny side up, masterbating. She called 911 and they acknowledged they knew about it, told her they would not be able to respond and for her to, âwait a while and he will leaveâ. This isnât funny to her. It traumatized her. She didnât know if he was going to attack her. But she didnât stick around to find out. She was scared and shocked and Iâm pissed.
Then comes the shooting. And a mugging at hula hut. And a major robbery of customers at a pharmacy. And the homicide inside of the HEB. All in a 7 day period. And Mayor Adler wants me to believe this is the safest city? Lol.
This is not a fight I wanna be apart of.
We love UT with all our hearts- no doubt itâs the best education. But the city has ruined our dream. We are transferring our daughter toâŠâŠâŠ (I ended here)
And this is an honors student with a 4.0 average (theyâre not leaving because the child is struggling academically and using this as an excuse - theyâre giving up a lot).
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That is terrible! Does the campus police not respond in this situation?
OP, thanks for sharing your stories/concerns. When I read reviews for a product or service online, I always pay much more attention to the negative comments than those who give the product/service 5-stars. Similarly, I find posts that raised issues/concerns about a college to be the most useful, even though they wonât endear the poster to everyone.
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I graduated in 87. Itâs very sad to see what Austin has become.
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This happened in West Campus, not on UTâs campus. UT has said they will not respond, since this falls under the cityâs domain. Even though most (99%?) of West Campus is compromised of UT students, and far more students live in West Campus than on campus. After a freshman was murdered by a homeless person (link included above) several years ago, UT committed 8 million to improve safety measures, though it hasnât been implemented yet. They did just open up an outpost in West Campus, though it will be manned only from 10 am to 2 pm. This incident happened between 2 pm and 3 pm, so no one would have been there anyway.
That is probably a typical campus / city agreement regarding police coverage â the UT PD primarily covers the actual campus property, while the Austin city PD primarily covers the rest of the city. UT PD is probably staffed to the level of providing coverage for the campus, not off-campus areas that may be student-dense.
Iâm not familiar with UT. So West Campus isnât technically/officially part of the UT campus?
Correct
Based on looking at campus maps, âWest Campusâ is a student-dense neighborhood that is not part of the UT Austin campus, but is adjacent to it.
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I live near a university and campus police has joint jurisdiction with local police. A student living off campus can call university police for assistance. I assumed that was the case for other communities as well. Maybe itâs unique to here?
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No. In the map above you can see all the green dots to the left of campus, thatâs the crime as of early September this year, doesnât even include the multiple shootings this past week. And where most upperclassmen live. And where UT owns and operates 2 dorms for its students. Austin had to cut the police department by a third IIRC, and shut down training, so no new members coming in. Before school started in the fall, the Austin police department said they would no longer be responding to non-life threatening events (listed above) because of insufficient staffing. I havenât even mentioned yet the new open carry law is now in effectâŠâŠâŠ
So UT wonât respond because itâs not their domain, and Austin canât respond in a timely manner because of staffing issues.
The homicide rate in Austin was over twice as high in 1990 and 1991 than it was last year. This yearâs rate is higher compared to last year, but it still hasnât reached the 1990-1991 level.
UT says off campus is not their jurisdiction. Whatâs upsetting is with the shooting Sunday night, no alert was ever sent about an active shooter. Instead, students were using social media to spread the word amongst themselves. UTâs official statement is âUTPD is not obligated to issue alerts outside (their) geographyâ. Students hunkered down where they were, stayed on social media, students in the library ran out of battery on their phones and were sharing batteries amongst themselves, calling parents (including me), best we could do was listen to the police scanner. I told my Longhorn to barricade the door and turn off the lights. Thatâs all we could do. I think UT sent an email to the students the following day.
That is truly awful and seems like an abdication of responsibility on the part of the university.
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Yes. The shooting on Sunday night, reading the terrified texts, group chats, fear, questions - that was the tipping point.
Parents were sharing information on the FB parents pages, just as students were sharing via social media. Some parents woke up to texts or emails from their kids saying âJust wanted you to know Iâm okâŠâŠ.â. Not what you want to see first thing in the morning.
And nothing ever from the school.
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No, not unique. In Boston Northeastern University and Boston University campus police have off campus jurisdiction in adjacent neighborhoods.
A distinction with a difference: university police has authority in adjacent areas. Jurisdiction implies that their authority is to the exclusion of, or superior to, the BPD, which is not the case.
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The university president has made the following statement after the recent uproar by parents:
The following is a statement from President Jay Hartzell:
The safety of our campus community remains a top priority for the university. In light of recent events, I am directing UTPD to increase its patrol in the west campus area and develop additional options to enhance safety for our students. While this area is the City of Austinâs jurisdiction, we recognize that the best outcomes will stem from a coordinated effort between UTPD, the Austin Police Department and the State Department of Public Safety. Our new efforts will build on the $8 million investment from our Board of Regents to create a campus patrol district, hire new officers, install a network of security cameras, and establish a UTPD west campus satellite office. I appreciate the work of our university law enforcement and the Mental Health Assistance and Response Team, as well as their unwavering commitment to protect our students, faculty, staff, and visitors.
Now will have to wait to see if there is any improvement.
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