No campus-wide e-mail about shoot-out
Double Take
No campus-wide e-mail about shoot-out
Double Take
Monday, September 20, 2010
A day after a chaotic shoot-out took place one block from Old Campus, Yale officials have not notified the community about the violence and do not plan to.
All universities that participate in federal financial aid programs are required to disclose information about crimes that occur near their campuses. Associate Vice President for Administration Janet Lindner, who oversees Yale security, said the University is not obligated to report Sunday morning’s incident because it did not occur on University property or involve University affiliates. But students interviewed, upon hearing of the gunfight, said they were alarmed by the incident and by the University’s silence.
The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, passed in 1990, requires colleges and universities to inform students of any crime that occurs in “any building or property owned or controlled by an institution of higher education within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution and used by the institution in direct support of, or in a manner related to, the institution’s educational purposes, including residence halls.” The gunfight occurred one block from Bingham Hall on Old Campus.
Lindner said Yale officials looked into the shooting and decided that it did not merit a campus-wide alert. Before sending such a message to the community, she said, administrators consider whether there is an imminent threat to the Yale community, whether the incident directly affects Yale community members and whether the incident took place on campus property.
“It was judged that the factors in this incident do not warrant an alert,” she said.
For incidents that do, the University may either send a campus-wide e-mail (a familiar “Message from Assistant Chief Ronnell Higgins”) or activate the Yale ALERT emergency notification system, which sends the entire community a text message, automated phone call and e-mail.
Sunday’s shooting involved three gunmen, one of whom opened fire on police officers and is still at large. The gunmen shot as many as 30 bullets on both sides of College Street, just as hundreds of bar patrons, some of whom may have been Yale students, streamed onto the street.
Of 17 Old Campus residents interviewed Sunday evening, only one knew the shoot-out had occurred, and she, Rachael Ett ’13, said she heard about it from an acquaintance who works for the News.
Pierson freshman counselor Cecilia Wright ’11 said the administration should do a better job of communicating information to freshmen counselors about safety concerns that could affect the class of 2014.
“It seems like violence is getting closer and closer to Old Campus,” Wright said.
Ten of 11 freshmen interviewed Sunday night said it was disconcerting that the administration decided not to notify them of the incident, even if it did not take place on University property and no Yale community member was directly involved.
“I think it would definitely be useful if [the chief of Yale police] still sent out e mails so that we know what’s happening around campus and we don’t feel like we’re being hidden from the truth,” said Leon Zhang ’14, who lives in Bingham Hall. “I think [the policy] should be expanded to the Yale bubble as opposed to only properties owned by Yale.”
Gene Kim ’13 said he would have liked to know about the shooting because he would have been more aware of the area around Old Campus, even though the shooters were not targeting Yale students.
“It’d be nice to be aware of my surroundings,” he said. “To be not totally ignorant.”
Trumbull freshman counselor Mo Lecaro ’11 said that though she does not feel a need to gather her freshmen and tell them of the shooting, the University as an institution has a duty to notify its students.
Comments
Sara 1 year, 8 months ago
A shootout in a massive, bustling entertainment district with tens of thousands of visitors every day and 10,000 restaurant seats, like Crown Street, shouldn't be a surprise - similar events happen in all big cities with that number of people crowding into them.
Do the math per capita and, unless you are one of the dealers or prostitutes, you're far more likely to get struck by lightning than to get injured in a busy downtown district.
pablum 1 year, 8 months ago
Shame on Yale.
@Sara: New Haven has more murders per capita than New York City. Explain that, please. Also, experience and logic dictate that popular, busy, well-lit streets in commercial districts don't normally experience violent shootouts between police and criminals.
Stop apologizing for Yale and New Haven's failures.
The Register reports:
"Sherif Farouk, manager at Pacifico, a white-linen tapas restaurant featuring Nuevo Latino cuisine at the corner of Crown and College streets, said he heard six or seven shots outside, then saw a rush of people toward Chapel Street. One bullet pierced a window in the restaurant.
'We just all get onto the ground, just lay on the floor to try to protect ourselves and our customers,' he said of the scene, which he described as frightening. 'I had a couple of customers start to cry.'"
Sure hope nobody from Yale was hoping to enjoy grilled fish that night.
Sara 1 year, 8 months ago
pablum, if you look at New Haven as a standard-defined metro area (based on commuting patterns), it actually has one of the lowest murder rates in the country. You're not even remotely comparing apples to apples.
pablum 1 year, 8 months ago
So, if we include all of the tiny towns and villages within New Haven County, suddenly New Haven appears safer? Sure. I probably won't get shot outside the Hamden Country Day school. That's not the point, and you're obscuring or wishing away the problem with selective statistics.
Hieronymus 1 year, 8 months ago
Look, I love New Haven, but there's no putting lipstick on this pig:
2009 FBI Statistics: New Haven, pop. 123,659; Violent Crime: 2,183 ; Murder: 12 ; Rape: 59
Cambridge, pop. 102,866; Violent Crime: 497; Murder: 2; Rape: 21
(The New Haven murder rate is close to double that of NYC, btw)
For a visually arresting presentation of recent "events," compare: http://spotcrime.com/ct/new+haven
vs.
http://spotcrime.com/ma/cambridge
When tracking down NYC's Columbia U., you will find a total of ONE nearby (that's nearby, i.e., not "darned close to on" campus) shooting (of course, Harvard cannot say the same...)
++ Also, Sara, looks like Boston had 50 murders (not "hundreds") for a murder rate of 8 per 100,000 citizens, versus New Haven's higher 2009 rate of 9.7/100k and NYC's lower rate of 5.6/100k.
Sara 1 year, 8 months ago
To the above:
The reason to use standard Census MSA definitions when comparing cities (which are based on commuting patterns, and do not include "every village in New Haven County") is because it is impossible to standardize the comparison otherwise.
Take a hypothetical situation where the "city" was just the New Haven Green, for example - it would have a population of zero, but may have some crimes because during the day, there are tens of thousands of people and hundreds of parked vehicles there.
In fact, New Haven's "daytime" population (including commuters to clubs, for example) is far higher than its resident population, which skews the rates you present.
In other words, you're not considering where municipal boundaries are drawn and how they vary significantly in scope from one municipality to another, based only on government jurisdictions not on what the "city" really is.
The FBI website also has this as a disclaimer, so I'm not sure why you have trouble believing it.
Once again, a shootout once every few years in a district with tens of thousands of people in it every day doesn't mean that the area is unsafe. Presenting it as such is a good way to convince people to flee to places like Guilford, where they actually may have a far greater risk of death, due to high speed car traffic.
Hieronymus 1 year, 8 months ago
Back atcha Sara: that is why I posted the visual crime map.
Dear Hahvahd is smack dab in the middle of a densely populated urban area, with far more foot and commuter traffic--and night life--than Yale (which would likely skew Cambridge's stats further than New Haven's, no?) . Indeed, ceteris parabus ex population density, one would expect to see a higher-than-New-Haven rate of shootings. (New Haven does, of course, suffer much greater socioeconomic disparity, a disparity highly defined geographically). In any case, my point is that Yale has more shootings--WAY more shootings--closer to campus than does Harvard or Columbia, two other urban campuses.
On a related topic: Yale goes to great lengths to manipulate crime data, defining itself, against Sara's directives, strictly geographically, i.e., it only reports crimes that occur "on campus," as it defines "campus," which may not include, e.g., parking lots and definitely excludes crimes against students that occur off campus, e.g., on their way to Payne Whitney...
Also: despite trying to rope in Boston, which does not affect Harvard Square the way that you would like, I found Stephanie Kan's quote regarding her time at Harvard quite telling: “During my seven weeks there [at Harvard's summer program], I did not even get the chance to go into Boston."
SoooOOOooo: Long way of saying, call 'em whatcha want, but calling up a crime map showing shootings is a'gonna send some folks in search of another host city for their bright college years. Spin those stats, but bullet casings litter the street a coupla hundred yards from campus, and do so with alarming regularity.
Hieronymus 1 year, 8 months ago
Yikes! Let us compare listed (and scarily detailed, if you click on any particular incident) stats from the visual crime map (shootings only):
NEW YORK CITY (A rather big place, no?): 10 shootings listed since July (the closest about 8-10 city blocks from Columbia).
NEW HAVEN (A rather smaller place, yes?): 18 shootings listed since July (ALL of them within walking distance--if not earshot and eyesight--of Yale). So much for Sara's "[one] shootout every few years," btw.
CAMBRIDGE (A slightly smaller city than New Haven, but much denser and, more importantly vis-a-vis Sara's comments, with MUCH higher surrounding density and commuter patterns): 1
Yep.... One.
So... NYC, with an UNARGUABLY higher population density, regardless of how you spin it, has close to half the absolute number of shootings that New Haven experienced (in the four month period since July and via the cited source, which I rather doubt, despite any imprecision, is somehow systematically biased against New Haven). And Cambridge, UNDOUBTEDLY (note the descriptor change, meant to account for Sara's predilections) a more highly trafficked area has, as far as shootings go.... precisely.... one.
Now c'mon, Sara: unless you are working from the *Yale OPA*, ya gotta admit that maybe, just MAYbe, your typical Yalie is at slightly higher odds than his or her urban Ivy peers of seeing, hearing, hearing of, or suffering a shooting, yeah?
P.S., Sara: I defy you to back up your claims (as I have done with mine) re: your assertion that "if you look at New Haven as a standard-defined metro area (based on commuting patterns), it actually has one of the lowest murder rates in the country." Cite your sources.
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