[Mark McNalley]

After discussions with students and staff in the Housing Office, the theme of safety and how it impacts our retention continues to come up. I hear sentiments about not feeling safe walking on-campus and the frequency of alerts coming out and on and on and on.

Therefore, I’m posting to this forum about two initiatives that I believe could help stem the tide on some of these statements and the perception associated with them.

First, I think we should take a look at the lighting of campus. I know I’ve had this discussion before and have heard about walks around campus performed by faculty and/or staff in order to assess the lighting needs of campus, however when I have been on-campus at nights there are portions of campus that are not well-lit and these areas are in major walkways of campus.

Second, I would like to take a look at how Drexel Park is maintained and what plans there are or could be for that space. I often hear from our students about how you should “never go to Drexel by yourself” or “if you have to go to the UC after 5 p.m., drive so you don’t have to walk by Drexel”. If this is the line of thinking of our students, I have to wonder what other stakeholders think of it (i.e. parents, local community, etc.). Community spaces, like Drexel, can be a huge benefit to the campus or a large deterrent and I’d like to chat about what efforts can be taken to make it a benefit to campus.

Forewarning: I have no concrete plans for either of these initiatives but I’m a willing partner to anyone who may want to help with either of these items.