In recent months crime at Wake Forest University, on and off campus, has skyrocketed, causing great concern amongst students, parents, faculty, and staff . Students are too often receiving an e-mail from the Office of Communications regarding yet another incident of a violent crime in the area. While some measures have been put into place to increase safety and decrease crime not nearly enough has been done, and change needs to be implemented.
In addition to the Wake Forest student who was shot on Polo Road this summer, many other incidents have been reported. In September, two men broke into an off-campus student home and fired a gun within the house. Luckily, nobody was injured but it was a very traumatic incident for all those involved.
Additionally, on October 20th at approximately 8:20 P.M. a man armed with a pistol abducted a Wake Forest law student and a female friend. The assailant directed his captives to drive to an ATM on Coliseum Drive to withdraw cash, and then had himself dropped off on the intersection of 25th and Thurmond streets.
Furthermore, recent police reports indicated that there were three reported incidents in which male students reported being physically assaulted by assailants on the intersection of Long Drive and Polo Road. Of the three victims, two denied medical attention, and the third was checked by university medical staff and released. At this point in time no suspects have been named, and there have been no leads in the case.
Additionally, on October 30th there was an incident in which a female student was assaulted on Hearn Plaza. The female student was leaving Zick’s at approximately 2 A.M. when three unidentified men followed her across the quad, and were verbally harassing her. One assailant punched the student in the face multiple times, and another assailant slapped her in the face. Immediately after the attack, the men fled toward South Campus. No leads have been found and no suspects identified.
“The University is one hundred percent within their rights to prohibit weapons on campus, but to prohibit students from bearing arms in a neighborhood that is so ridden in crime is a direct violation of our rights as United State Citizens.”
The most recent attack was one of the most concerning, as it occurred directly on campus, a place where students have the right to feel secure. When asked about whether she felt safe both on and off campus, Shanley Howrigan, a senior living in Polo Residence Hall, said “I feel fairly safe on campus, however, I am bothered that a student was assaulted recently on the Quad; because if you’re not safe in one of the most visible and well lit areas on campus, then where can you feel safe?”
Howrigan addresses that off-campus crime is sad but understandable, but if change is not implemented, students won’t even be able to grab a late night snack on-campus without the risk of being brutally assaulted.
The safety problem stems from the fact that the entrances to campus do not have enough security to properly prevent possible assailants from entering the school property. The Polo Gate closes at 10 P.M. The University Parkway and Reynolda Road entrances have a gatehouse, but people on foot can simply walk around the gate, on a sidewalk, with nothing to prevent them from entering campus. When asked what she thought the University could do in order to increase campus security, Howrigan suggested that the school install security gates, requiring student IDs to unlock, at these locations.
While some measures such as the new onCall late night van service and the blue light call system are in place to increase security measures, there needs to be a greater effort to secure the safety of students both on and off campus.
While some measures have been put in place in order to increase on-campus security, approximately twenty-five percent of the student body lives off campus, in addition to a majority of the staff and faculty. Yet, it seems not enough has been done to ensure off-campus safety.
One off-campus resident, Drew Becker, argues that if Wake will not do more to protect their students who live off-campus, Wake should not deny our right to arm and protect ourselves in our own homes. The University has prohibited students from possessing any weapons both on campus and anywhere in the surrounding areas, including private residential homes. The University is one hundred percent within their rights to prohibit weapons on campus, but to prohibit students from bearing arms in a neighborhood that is so ridden in crime is a direct violation of our rights as United State Citizens.
Becker says that he’s “disappointed that Wake Forest University uses the power it has acquired over us as students to deprive us of an essential part of our bill of rights. If Wake sought to outright deny our right as adult U.S. citizens to exercise our First, Fourth, Fifth, or Fourteenth Amendment rights, justifying their actions via our off-campus residences status, we would be rightfully outraged.” No exceptions should be made in regard to protecting our rights to bear arms when it comes to the right to self-preservation.
Thus, Wake Forest University, we urge you to institute systematic change in order to increase campus security, give us back our constitutional rights to protect ourselves, and to simply feel safe on this beautiful campus that we call home.