San Antonio - An Ohio State University Alumni Club

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Greetings TexBux:

Your president has asked me to provide a blog to provide what may be a different perspective on Ohio State and the state of higher education in general.  I prefer to provide some jolly piece on Oval antics or a behind-the-curtain look at the high quality of entertainment along the Olentangy.  But as is often the case, attempts at light-hearted meanderings are interrupted by tragic events.  Such is the case as we learned of the recent shooting death of an OSU employee by the hand of another.

Early in the morning, according to police reports, a just-recently fired facilities staff member shot and killed a supervisor and wounded another before turning the weapon on himself.  As this came hard on the heels of an assault incident on campus, it opened the question of campus security.  After the previous incident, there was some national exposure to the concern that students did not “get the word” about on-campus incidents.  In the blogosphere, a couple of students complained that OSU did not care enough to notify them of potential danger.  However, Ohio State did post information on the incident in a very timely fashion on its Web site and sent messages to those who have signed up for emergency notifications.  A few commenters chided the students for not signing up for a free program that may provide them up-to-date information critically invaluable to them.  In fact, roughly 90% of the students had not bothered with this service.  It is unclear how many faculty and staff haven’t signed on, either. 

While the case of the employee shooting did not directly affect the students, having a taped-off crime scene on campus, even if it is at the electrical plant, inevitably raises concerns.  One parent wrote to an on-line site that he felt that places such as Ohio State resting in or adjacent to big cities invited the crime that plagues such communities.  However, in replying to that submission, I pointed out that the same dangers exist in the so-called “college towns” that the reader had preferred for his own kids. Looking at some of the most heinous on-campus or campus-related tragedies, one need not stray too far from Virginia Tech.  Or one can look at the epitome of the college town, Gainesville, Florida, in which nearly everyone employed there serves the huge institution that is the University of Florida. G’ville was the scene in the 1990s of brutal serial student murders that terrorized that community.  And the list goes on. 

However, while sensationalized crimes, such as the UF and Va Tech murders create the headlines, there is some evidence that other crimes are still an issue on college campuses.  While OSU’s number of sexually related assaults is down in the last reported year, it is still higher than some other comparable-sized universities in college towns, such as Penn State and UF (though the University of Michigan suffered some 15 more crimes of this category than OSU that year).  OSU seems to be the place, however, for those campus folks who can’t keep their hands off other people’s property.  Theft of items is higher at OSU than most college places, though that number, too, seems to be dropping rapidly.  Reviewing the reports of various campuses, it seems one of the safest, most secure places to be is the University of Alaska.  I’ll leave it for each reader to speculate why that may be. 

The true danger for students at universities is the same as it is for any young American.  My wife, who worked at a Research 1 university student health care center once told me that the university lost an average of slightly more than a student a month, and these primarily due to automobile accidents.  It seems the best defense against bodily harm for college students is the same for the rest of us – a fastened seat belt.

Given that OSU is a city within a city, it’s a pretty safe place to be.  Comparing crime at OSU vs. the national average, it would seem that sending one’s child to college there or almost any college is, statisically speaking, far better than keeping him or her around the local neighborhood. 

K. Anderson Crooks, Ph.D., APR, CPRC

Note: Dr. Crooks (OSU ’79) has served as a university faculty member and as a senior administrator.  He has taught at institutions from community college to a major flagship university and earned Ohio State Alumni Association’s Outstanding Citizenship Award for his contributions to our country and to higher education.