<p>The truth is that despite the two (2) shootings this year, crime as a whole–robberies, assaults, burglaries, etc–has been steadily decreasing every year for two decades. I believe this is the first shooting death of a USC student in many, many years.</p>
<p>USC students feel safer off-campus than they used to. These students were shot on the far side of the bloc northwest of campus, the neighborhood with the fewest students, outside of the DPS patrol zone. 15 years ago I don’t believe any students lived in that neighborhood. The bloc north of campus is much safer and the bloc to the west is safer than it’s ever been.</p>
<p>High-profile incidents like this do more to mar USC’s reputation than the hundreds on hundreds of smaller crimes that are more likely to affect a student’s life, crimes which are becoming less and less frequent. The last murder of a USC student, by my memory, was fall of 2008.</p>
<p>Getting so nervous right now. Are there any other new parents out there developing immediate anxiety over the graphic (link in first post) showing 90 murders in a two mile radius of USC since 2007?? Doesn’t that seem extremely high? I mean 1 or 2 miles off campus is walking distance…</p>
<p>Only 3 of those murders (including the two this morning) were USC students. 2 miles from campus (an area almsot 50 times the size of campus) includes areas well south of MLK Blvd and east of the 110 freeway (including the Historic South Central neighborhood) that most students have never driven through, much less walked to.</p>
<p>momarch, I remember seeing a similar graphic just before my son began at USC. At the time, I looked up the same graphic around another school I expected to have much less red. It didn’t! Try recreating the same map with USC as the central point, and you may feel better.</p>
<p>Thank you jazz mom and Band… the graphic scared me, but I guess we need to just make sure our son knows where not to be (as with any university neighborhood). Thank you for pointing out that those are areas a student would not typically be walking in… calming down now…</p>
<p>Just got off the phone with D. She is very puzzled by the incident as generally, weapons are only used to threaten the victims, so they will give up whatever the aggressor wants. She thinks it is very odd that they shot and murdered the victims as that would make it much tougher for them to get what they purportedly wanted–the valuable car. (I think she may watch too much CSI, but it her reasoning makes sense to me.)</p>
<p>She also reassured me that where they were shot is not where many of the kids are living. My kids lived their SR year VERY near USC campus and have never felt in the least insecure. My D says there is a DPS guy stationed across the street from her apartment building and regularly mans that post.</p>
<p>My sister is a junior at CU-Boulder and they have muggings, robberies, etc all the time. Not to down play this tragedy at all, for the families must be distraught, but crime happens EVERYWHERE! No university can guarantee someone’s safety 100%. Peace be with the friends and families affected by this senseless act.</p>
<p>This report was very alarming and as a parent with a student studying right now in China- my worst nightmare, then I turned on the news at noon here in Seattle and there is a big report coming out about UW and student safety ON campus. Report went on to talk about assault w deadly weapon happening right on campus-and how the students don’t feel safe- what steps the U is taking to address it - I couldnt believe it! So in conclusion- I guess this can happen anywhere and we need to educate the kids before they head off to college no matter where they are heading…</p>
<p>The Daily Trojan says they were Viterbi grad students:
"Two graduate students were fatally shot early Wednesday morning as they sat in a car in front of a residence on Raymond Avenue near 27th Street, according to Dept. of Public Safety Capt. David Carlisle.</p>
<p>“The Los Angeles Police Department responded to the scene in the 2700 block of Raymond Avenue shortly after 1 a.m., where one female, 23-year-old Ying Wu, and one male, 23-year-old Ming Qu, were found shot.”</p>
<p>As has been said, unfortunately violence happens in a lot of campuses, including USC. The campus has guaranteed housing for all freshmen & sophomores. There are also many rental options near campus that are as close or closer than campus housing.</p>
<p>It is incredibly sad for the entire USC community and all other campuses. Not sure what a mandatory safety orientation would do to prevent random acts of violence, if that was what this was. At this point, it’s difficult for most of us to know why this happened if it was anything beyond a random act of violence.</p>
<p>Thank you for sharing firsthand about your experiences at USC.
My daughter has been accepted to Electrical Engineering and we had a trip planned to visit next week to help us make the decision, but now we are very concerned for everyone’s safety and are weighing whether it is worth the dangers. We are 3rd generation asian american but to a stranger appear that we could be international. Do international students have more safety issues?
We are used to being able to run and ride bikes in the Pacific NW, it sounds like it is not done outside of campus. The EE buildings look like they are located in the southwest corner of the campus right across from the area they are told to avoid.
Are students friendly to others on campus? Or is it pretty much having friends in your own building and area of study?
Is housing really hard to get into every year? She’d want to stay in the Arts & Humanities buildilng, but I wonder if it will be impossible as we haven’t made our decision yet.
Thanks all- </p>
<p>PS- My heart also goes out to the USC students and families-how very sad for this to happen to such bright promising students who were just up late studying :(</p>
<p>Anywhere on campus is entirely safe. Generally anywhere north of campus (east of vermont, south of adams, west of figueroa) is also safe. This incident occurred west of vermont and north of jefferson which is an “unpatrolled” area and still not that safe so it is recommended people do not live in that area if possible.</p>
<p>About 15% of my S’s 2006 HS class went to USC; nearly all are Asian-Americans of varying generations. None of them have had any problems or told me or our kids of any feelings of not being safe on campus. There is a VERY ACTIVE and HIGHLY visible Department of Public Safety, DPS, on campus. They respond in 60-90 seconds if anyone pushes the button on the blue call boxes throughout campus and nearby.</p>
<p>Both our kids attended USC. Many other people we know have many family members attending USC as well. Many of them live off campus at least for JR & SR years. Other than random crimes and violence that can happen in most urban areas, most of them have really found USC to be quite safe and a great place to get an excellent education.</p>
<p>Our S lived in Pardee on the Great Outdoors floor his freshman year & made many friends that he kept throughout his years at USC, in many fields. He was an EE major as well & is now living in Arlington, VA, near his federal job. </p>
<p>Students are mostly VERY friendly to others on campus, especially freshmen in the fall and spring. There are lots of great places for your D to live. Our D lived at Webb in the spring when she transferred in as a sophomore. She liked it there as well. Both have made friends from many different disciplines and have found USC a great place to get a well-rounded education</p>
<p>There is an incredible amount of support for female engineering students at USC in their WISE program. The year S graduated in 2010, ALL the awards for outstanding engineering students, including their school’s validictorian went to females, even tho they were greatly outnumbered by males. S did have a female research lab partner–she was choosing between UCBerkley or Stanford for grad school.</p>
<p>Don’t let fear from a random act of violence limit your D’s choices. As has been pointed out and posted here & elsewhere, unfortunately, violence can occur even in an idyllic rural place like Virginia Tech and many other campuses. S spent 4 years at USC & D has spent 3.5; neither of them have felt endangered at any point in their years at USC and we have always felt safe when we visited them. The dangers are greatly overstated.</p>
<p>Look, I understand how parents especially would be hesitant about sending their kids to USC especially after hearing this news. What you have to understand is that USC spends a ton of time, effort, and money on making campus and the areas around campus safe. Unfortunately, this was outside of the area where USC security patrols. Nobody is saying that these things don’t happen, or that USC is completely safe. Indeed, these things do happen, and USC is not located in the nicest area. I am thankful though, that my school tries so hard to keep us safe. Honestly I have never felt in danger anywhere on or near campus, which attests to the efforts of DPS. </p>
<p>Also, north of Jefferson is patrolled. North of Adams is not patrolled. This happened west of Vermont and north of Adams which is definitely outside the patrol zone. People do choose to live there because it’s cheaper. It’s cheaper because it’s farther from campus and not many students choose to live there.</p>
<p>To answer the questions of Ilovemy2girls, the EE building is on campus. It’s safe. It’s not like there’s criminals spilling into campus and shooting people up. The horror stories you hear are always exaggerated. I know this may not be what you want to hear, and you may not believe it, but that is my honest assessment and you are free to not believe it if you choose. Every evening you will see students and local residents jogging around campus (it’s a convenient 2-mile loop around the border of campus) and you’ll see students biking to and from where they live in the areas around campus all day long. Traffic obviously dies down at night. i’m an asian at USC and I really don’t feel like I am “special” at all, in that I’m not singled out or anything. We have the largest population of international students of any university in the US - it’s impossible to pick out international students because there is such a large populations of minorities and such on campus. Are students friendly to each other? Of course they are! Trojans pride themselves on caring and being supportive of each other. Of course one will have more friends in their own specific major and area, but that doesn’t mean that someone you have no classes in common with is going to ignore you. Housing is guaranteed for freshmen and sophomores, and Parkside A&H is a huge building. Your daughter will likely have no problem getting a spot in there. I wish you a good time visiting next week. It’s Explore USC right? I’ll most likely be at the lunch at Town & Gown, for the USC Trojan Marching Band concert that we give every Explore group. Hope to see you there!</p>
<p>If any parents want to talk to a current USC student who will give you an honest assessment of the area and answer any other questions you have, please let me know. I will be happy to help.</p>
<p>Same here. I read about this yesterday evening and was really shocked and saddened to hear this happened. I’ll be keeping up with this story and hope they catch the person responsible.</p>