<p>How safe is campus? I heard about the Chemistry Ph.D. student who was mugged and shot just a stroll past the Midway Plaisance. I am thinking about enrolling in UChicago, but I am mostly worried about campus safety.</p>
<p>I have a child who is a second year student at Chicago and I visit frequently. The school is actually in a decent neighborhood, but is surrounded on two sides by rougher neighborhoods. Like any urban school, i.e. Yale, University of Pennsylvania, crime occurs. The murder you refer to was the first one in thirty years. It happened to a student who was walking alone at 1:00 AM. Very sad and unfortunate, but no student anywhere should walk alone in a city at that time. If you use common sense, the U of Chicago is a safe campus. There is a huge police department, escort services to take you home late at night, van rides to dorms, etc. I would suspect that after this incident, Chicago may well be one of the safest campuses in the U.S. They have vastly increased the size of their private police department(the second largest in the world) and its coverage of the surrounding neighborhood. Actual on campus crime is rare and during daytime hours is rare off campus as well. At night or in early morning hours you should use the services that the University provides and you should be just fine.</p>
<p>I agree with newenglandparent. I'm a second year at the UofC, and not once have I felt unsafe on campus. Since the murder, you can't turn a corner without seeing a UCPD car.</p>
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Since the murder, you can't turn a corner without seeing a UCPD car.
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<p>As do I, not that that makes me feel any better.</p>
<p>YouTube</a> - University of Chicago Police</p>
<p>I saw another incident like that the other day, when a UChicago police car was pathetically attempting to parallel park.</p>
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no student anywhere should walk alone in a city at that time
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<p>So true. I think the combination of an urban neighborhood with college students who think they are immortal is something to watch out for. Some of my friends do INCREDIBLY stupid things (like being alone and drunk at a deserted subway stop at 4am), and the vast majority of the time nothing happens to them. Use the resources that the University has, be aware of your surroundings, etc. Muggings are a fact of urban life, but threats to your physical safety are quite rare.</p>
<p>It may also be worth noting that the murder in question was committed by a bunch of kids who were not from the University's immediate neighborhood, but who drove there from miles away, and went on a 90-minute crime spree, mugging a few people and trying it with others, ending with the student they killed. In other words, this had nothing to do with the surrounding neighborhood. And they were caught within a few days, because people took it very, very seriously.</p>
<p>Newenglandparent, that is not exactly correct. Iaon Culianu, a UC professor, was murdered in the bathroom of the Divnity School on May 21, 1991.</p>
<p>The murder of Professor Iaon Culiano in 1991 is not presumed to have been a crime perpetuated by anyone from the neighborhood or the type of crimes that this post is talking about. While this murder has never been solved, it is widely known that the professor was involved in some sort of political intrigue and it is suspected that this was a political assasination much like the one of the Russian in London a few years ago who was killed by a poison umbrella being poked into him. Therefore, I believe that based on the writer's question, my answer is correct.</p>
<p>"The murder you refer to was the first one in thirty years."</p>
<p>And that is why I used the word "exactly".</p>
<p>I am aware of the circumstances of Dr. Culiano's death and happy to see that you are also.</p>
<p>Also, for the OP: You should look back at some of the many, many threads about campus safety at Chicago, which have a lot of informative, nuanced discussion. One of the things you will learn is that, while Chicago students do not feel under siege or anything, they tend to stay within certain bounds, and there is no such thing as "just a stroll past the Midway Plaisance". There are lots of University buildings along the south side of the Midway, but anyone heading south of them -- even a long block and a half, to where this awful crime occurred -- is probably walking purposefully, not strolling. Ironically, and sadly, where the murder occurred is just a few yards away from what will soon be a large undergraduate dorm, as well as from the future headquarters of the University police. But right now those places are mainly a vacant construction site, where the power periodically gets cut to the street lights. For now, few undergraduates would ever have a reason to hang out on the block beyond that, unless they were living very frugally.</p>