Hours after a Northwestern student was attacked while riding his bicycle early Oct. 12, University President Morton O. Schapiro said he brought one task to the table at his weekly staff meeting: enhancing campus safety and taking action by the end of the day.
From the meeting emerged a decision to lengthen SafeRide’s operating hours, increase the number of cars and drivers, and enhance patrol visibility for both the Evanston and NU police departments. Money, Schapiro said, was no object in the discussion.
“We went around and everybody gave their opinions,” he said. “And one hour later we had a specific change in how we were going to operate.”
About 11 high-ranking administrators attend these weekly meetings, Schapiro said, adding that the meetings give them a chance to have everyone represented at one table.
“It’s great to have that meeting, because you can really get a lot done,” he said. “It’s not like ‘Oh, I have to check with anybody.’ Everybody is in the room.”
Senior Vice President for Business and Finance Eugene Sunshine, who serves as the direct liaison between NU administration and city and campus police, said he contacted NUPD Chief Bruce Lewis following the staff meeting to discuss increasing campus patrols. At that time, Sunshine said, Lewis was already working on a plan.
“Chief Lewis was half a step ahead of us, which allowed us to begin increasing patrols that evening,” Sunshine said, “The adding of SafeRide cars took a little longer.”
Lewis was unavailable for comment, but Deputy Chief of Police Daniel McAleer said NUPD’s conversation with administrators about patrols is an ongoing one.
“We’ve increased our presence since those incidents, both on and off campus,” McAleer said. “We are out there in vehicles, on bicycles and on foot.”
Many NUPD officers are also logging overtime, McAleer said.
“Officers are coming in earlier for the afternoon-to-midnight shift and staying longer into the earlier hours of the morning,” he said, adding that this is the window during which incidents have been most frequent.
McAleer said the incident involving the sexual assault of a female student in the Technological Institute has led to some additional patrol adjustments. More NUPD officers now frequent the science buildings, he said.
Increasing SafeRide’s capacity and hours was a second result of the meeting. SafeRide Coordinator Paul David Shrader, Weinberg ’09, told The Daily he was contacted about hiring more drivers shortly after the administration’s safety staff meeting. The new SafeRide hours were extended an hour earlier and an hour later, and the service now runs from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. The additional hours, drivers and cars combined, Shrader said, will allow the service to provide about 400 rides per night.
NU’s Vice President for Student Affairs William Banis did not return phone calls or e-mails.
Sunshine said a third, longer-term initiative that came out the meeting was improving lighting in and around NU. Last week, Associated Student Government sponsored an Off-Campus Light Walk attended by Evanston and NU police officials, which was meant to identify areas of campus in need of better lighting.
Both McAleer and Evanston Police Chief Richard Eddington said they were not yet aware of which areas had been labeled as high priority for more lighting.
Evanston Police have also increased the visibility of patrols on and off campus in conjunction with NUPD, Eddington said. Every week, he added, NUPD officers attend Evanston Police deployment meetings, during which both departments identify high risk areas from the previous week and allocate officers accordingly.
Eddington said ‘part one’ crimes – like burglary and assault – have decreased 16 percent in 2009 across the city.
But McAleer said what is unusual about the crimes reported this fall is the higher frequency of “crimes against persons.” He said he is confident the steps NU is taking will limit the victimization of students on campus.
“University central administration has always been of the mind that whatever needs to be done in protecting the community will get done,” he said. “If that means more officers and increasing overtime, they will do it. Cost doesn’t matter.”
