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Opinion
 

Staff Editorial

                Matt Dulin                  Chris Elliott                        Robyn Morrow 
                                Johnny Peña                  Kristen Young

Campus safety improving but not quite enough 

On Wednesday, students, faculty and staff accompanied officials from the UH Department of Public Safety and UH Plant Operations on their fourth annual Walk in the Dark tour, Wednesday.

Each year, students and officials tour the campus and explore areas that may need additional lighting and security measures.

Plant Operations uses the comments made during the walk to create a list of priorities and begins improvements as quickly as possible, associate vice president for Plant Operations Dave Irvin said.

Increased lighting and security helps to keep students, faculty and staff safer in what many consider a dangerous part of town. University officials should be commended for recognizing these safety concerns and for trying to find solutions to make the University community more comfortable.

Plant Operations has spent $2 million on lighting projects as a result of these annual walks and plans to increase lighting in parking lots and on sidewalks. Since 2003, Plant Operations has increased the number of lights by 356 bringing the total to 1,287. Plant Operations has also increased the number of security cameras on campus and plans to install 12 new call boxes by the end of the semester.

Although these measures help to create a safer campus, officials must also focus on the quality and efficiency of University police officers.

Anyone who has called Cougar Patrol on a late night knows that officers’ response times aren’t always too speedy. Officers should find ways to increase response times. 

Students looking for an escort are often waiting to walk to their cars alone, and leaving them in one place for an extended amount of time isn’t safe either.

Students, faculty and staff can also help make our campus safer by contacting Plant Operations when they see malfunctioning lights or broken call boxes. If officials aren’t aware of a problem, they can’t possibly be equipped to handle it.

To make the campus a safer place, we all need to work together.