A small group of Evanston residents and officers from EvanstonPolice Department and University Police met Thursday night todiscuss a recently proposed safe house program aimed at increasingstreet safety for Northwestern students.
Attendees of the semi-annual Community Conversations meeting –held on campus at NU’s Family Institute — also discussed concernsabout NU’s upcoming Dillo Day events.
Evanston resident Jane Evans promoted her idea for a communitysafe house program, which would designate certain neighborhoodhomes as safe havens for students.
“I started to think about what we had to do to help the studentsfit into our neighborhoods and make them feel truly likeneighbors,” Evans said. “I just want kids to feel safe as they’rewalking home at night.”
But other residents said they were worried about some aspects ofthe plan — especially the possibility of being disturbed at latehours.
“To have the doorbell ring at three in the morning is scary fora resident,” said Evanston resident Jeanne Lindwall.
Newly elected Associated Student Government President Jane Lee,who attended the meeting with several other ASG senators, saidstudents are also uneasy about the idea.
“There’s reluctance from the students because we don’t want tobe waking the neighbors,” Lee said.
Lucile Krasnow, NU’s special assistant for community relations,said she has been working with Evans on possible alternatives tothe safe house idea, including a plan in which neighbors wouldleave their porch lights turned on to better light the streetswhere students walk late at night.
EPD Patrolman Loyce Spells said this would benefit residents aswell as students because criminals generally will not targetwell-lit areas. Spells, however, said he would support any versionof a safe house program, saying residents need to try it out todecide what will work best.
“It’s going to take some time to mold it into the perfectmasterpiece we want it to be,” Spells said.
Catherine Whitcomb, the assistant to NU’s vice president forstudent affairs, assured residents that the university is workingto make Dillo Day safer for both students and residents. She saidshe does not want a repeat of last year’s festivities, she said,when several students had to go to the hospital because of severeintoxication.
“We are 100 percent for students enjoying themselves,” Whitcombsaid. “We are 100 percent against them dying.”
A group of students working with Whitcomb and otheradministrators are planning a poster campaign that will highlightthe consequences of student misbehavior — especially for studentsplanning to study abroad next year. The Study Abroad Office nolonger will approve students with a record of misbehavior, shesaid.
The poster campaign, which will begin April 26, all will work toeducate students on the dangers of intoxication.
Whitcomb said she and the students are planning several newevents during Dillo Day, including a fraternity and sororitygrill-off by The Lakefill. Administrators hope to bring students toThe Lakefill so they are less of a disturbance to Evanstonresidents. The group is working with EPD and UP to increase DilloDay security.
Whitcomb also addressed the issue of the excessive litterproduced by NU students when they move out at the end of the schoolyear. She said the university and the city will divide the cost ofplacing extra dumpsters throughout Evanston in early June to reducecommunity litter.
Officers with EPD and UP ended the meeting with a communitysafety update, where they informed residents that the “partypatrol” police cars began working April 2. The two squad carspatrol every Friday and Saturday night from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. toensure students do not break city ordinances or disturb Evanstonresidents.
