First draft Temple Safety

Daniel Reiley
First Draft
Persuasive Writing
October 29, 2008
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: Student Housing and Safety
With limited and expensive housing on Temple’s campus it is hard to find a safe living environment for most Temple Students. According to Temple police reports over the past three years there have been four-hundred and ten crimes reported on the main campus of Temple University which mostly consisted of theft and burglary. Considering that the Temple police are securing the area’s which are only considered on-campus, these numbers are misleading. Misleading is a describing word because there are far more crimes that take place about four blocks off campus that are not counted on the Temple police records. An example of the mislead is that on the report it states that there have been zero murders in the past three years while in the past two years in which I’ve lived a block off-campus there have been at least five murders within a block of my house and countless numbers of shootings. If the Temple police expanded to these areas where the shootings are taking place it would be much safer for the Temple students who live in these areas. An attempt by the University to make these blocks safer is yet to be seen although, they must be aware of these incidents that surround the campus.
The naïve perspective of the University to leave these areas unprotected by Temple police leaves everyone in those areas in danger. An article about off-campus murder reports, “Police examine the crime scene after a man was shot to death outside a playground on N.10 St. near Oxford St., just a few blocks from the Temple University campus” (Gun Murder near Temple Campus). This incident occurred earlier this year in January, another reason why the Temple Police reports are bogus. It was Temple police who first reported to the crime scene. If the Temple police was closest to the crime scene it shows how close to campus these types of things happen. With students living in this area, the University should have at least sent out an alert to all Temple University Students. The alert system is supposed to be implemented when something or someone is in the area of the campus that could be dangerous. If this isn’t dangerous enough to send an alert than what exactly would be? Obviously, the University feels that shootings a block off campus aren’t important enough to send an alert to students that live on or around these streets.
The issue of danger for Temple Students wouldn’t be as much of an issue if the University made it financially and physically possible. First of all, there is not a lot of housing on-campus for students to live in. If ever Temple student wanted to live on campus it physically could not happen. Also, financially the buildings that are available for students to live in have high rent prices. In the Kardon-Atlantic building on campus, students could be paying up to $1400 to rent a two bedroom apartment. Meanwhile, off-campus you can find a four bedroom house for the same exact price. Due to this, many students choose to live either off-campus with no security, or choose to live at home and commute to class everyday. The number of commuters makes Temple a place where you go to school rather than a place that you really care about and have a lot of school spirit. The University has to realize the benefits of expanding the campus and housing for students. An expansion of housing would make Temple a University a place that the students love and they would gain notoriety nation wide by actually supporting a struggling athletic program. The environment on campus would be lively and Temple could become potential student’s number one choice rather than a third or fourth safety school. This would than lead to an increase in academic prestige which would only make the University a better and more successful place. The University needs these options so it can lead to opportunities for itself to gain prestige and notoriety.
As we stand today, the surrounding areas of Temple are still some of the most deadly areas in the city. Talking to students who live in these areas was a priority so I could see how they felt about these situations. After asking Colin Shope, a resident of the 1700 block of Berks avenue and former roommate freshman year, what types of incidents he has either seen, heard or experienced he responded by saying, “Two weeks ago(early October) I got robbed at gunpoint by some black guy…he got fifteen bucks and my cell phone.” He called the cops after and they told him that it was good he gave up what the guy wanted. They went down to the station but Colin said that since his description was general they couldn’t do much for him. This story is a reason to ask, WHY doesn’t security run around these neighborhoods? A lot worse could have happened to Colin and it was all over fifteen dollars and a cell phone. Last year Colin lived in the Kardon building but left because of the price for living. After talking to my roommates about this story, they are saying that they don’t want to live down here after this year because the lack of safety around this area.
The University needs to be responsible for the students’ safety because they live in these areas specifically to be close to campus. The students are aware of the dangers of off-campus living but, their other choice is to live at home and commute everyday. The university should realize this and, at the very least, ensure the safety of these students by expanding the campus security by four blocks. Increasing security would ease the minds of students who fear the worst everyday while walking back from class. In an article about recently slain police officer Patrick McDonald, two blocks off Temple’s campus, a resident of the area had a couple things to say about the safety of the streets, "It's rough out here…It's just going to get worse before it gets better.” With situations like this happening right on the streets that house Temple students, the university failed to alert the students once again, a sign that the University won’t care until something horrible like this happens on campus.