What Could UT Do To Be Safer.

In this blog I will be expanding on the Haruka Weiser blog, on how UT can be made safer. In blog 5 I wrote of a UT student who was killed on a Sunday night while heading to her dorm after dance practice. UTPD worked with the Austin Police department on finding a black male on a bike who appeared on the campus camera and later appearing by the football stadium with a backpack not worn before in the first video he was seen in. Due to this tragic event, students and faculties were shocked that one of their own had passed. But with the fear of one of UT student being murdered, the university did all it could to make sure students and faculty felt safe and knew of the incident. The university sent out texts and emails explaining every step of the way of what was occurring throughout the investigation, they increased patrols, and offered escorts to anyone who felt unsafe around the campus. But was that enough? Could UT be made safer?

UT being the largest university in the country with 50,000 students and over 24,000 faculty and staff, overall is a very safe place to be in. With the last on-campus tragedy being over 50 years ago, when Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the tower and gunned down 49 people, killing 16. This type of tragedies make people wonder what could off been done to prevent it or prevent it in the future. In my opinion a good way to start is setting metal detectors on every important building, so what happened 50 years ago could never happen again. In Weiser's case, increasing officers at night to walk around the each build, and adding more emergency call boxes around places were it might be dark and no cameras can reach to see, could make UT a bit safer. Time wrote an article called, Can We Make Campuses Safer? ,were it said that some schools have done what is called a prox card were its used to track the comings and goings of individuals students and gives buildings the control access to the dorms to electronically open the dorm doors, which was made to prevent sexual assaults and other incidents. Other ways to make UT safer is putting up a message board on each classroom so when something happens, it will appear on the small screen making it faster to reach those students who are in class. Adding "smart" video cameras around campus to detect suspicious activity. "This will alert a security officer if it films someone climbing up a fence, walking down the alley late at night or lingering by a windowsill." This type of technology will be pricey but all worth it at the end. Some schools like Princeton "train professors how to spot signs of depression, and access to metal-health services," this will be a great resource in UT's life. Lastly, adding more self-defense classes for woman weekly will also be a great way that UT could be made safer. But there’s a point where you can’t make a school too safe because than you'll be making, prison 2.0.