Ignorance is bliss. Right? Maybe, but not when the topic is crime on your own college campus. And just now, as a seasoned college senior, I realize the extent to which campus crime remains underreported and unpublicized. College students, we have been hoodwinked!
Fortunately, this may be about to change. Spurred by violent incidents such as those at Virginia Tech, Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives have united to approve The National Center for Campus Public Safety. The bill, titled the Campus Safety Act of 2009, is pending Senate approval. The Senate Judiciary Committee has rigorously supported the proposed national initiative since receiving the bill earlier this month. The center will function to monitor campus security at the national level by conducting training programs and providing grants to campus law enforcement agencies. These grants will fund research into new strategies for guaranteeing student safety on our college campuses across the country.
It looks as if The National Center for Campus Public Safety has the potential to make our colleges safer, but we need to be active participants in the process. After all, we as students know our college campuses best: we live there! As students we can: communicate with our campus law enforcement and our faculty about methods for improving the security of our universities; become peer counselors and promote college crime victimization programs such as that of Security on Campus, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting campus safety; and above all, we should practice safe and responsible behavior in our own college communities and set an example for our fellow classmates. For general information concerning the prevention of violence on your campus, or for information on NCPC’s Campus Crime Prevention training please visit our website at www.ncpc.org.
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