Featured, Public Safety
Recent violence near Eastern Iowa colleges not concerning students, parents much
Posted on Aug 23, 2009 by Diane Heldt.
Cedar Rapids Police Cpt. Steve O'Konek speaks to Coe College freshman about safety and security on campus and around town during an orientation session on Friday, Aug. 21, 2009, at Dows Theatre on the Coe campus in Cedar Rapids. Many Coe students are from rural areas or cities smaller than Cedar Rapids, and Cpt. O'Konek encouraged students to watch out for each other, keep their doors locked, and use common sense. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
University of Iowa Police have fielded plenty of questions from parents concerned about violence near the Iowa City campus.
During summer orientation sessions on safety, parents of incoming students asked about the rash of male-on-male violence downtown in the spring, said Chuck Green, UI public safety director.
“That question certainly came up,” he said. “We heard a lot of ‘What are you doing to address it?’ ”
As college students return to classes this fall, recent spates of violence in Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and Waterloo — all Eastern Iowa college communities — have raised some concern but no fear, and the schools are prepared to deal with issues.
UI’s Cambus service, for example, is adding a third late-night weekend route to serve areas east of downtown, and UI Police are reminding students of safety tips. Also, six or seven more officers will start in coming months, Green said, in part to patrol downtown.
At Coe College in Cedar Rapids and the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, student and parent concern about safety actually hasn’t seemed more than usual.
Several Coe students said they feel safe on campus, which is bordered by busy First Avenue East. They are more careful, however, to stay in groups if they go into surrounding neighborhoods at night, they said.
A new police substation, called the Community Connections Center, opened this summer a few blocks from Coe after some high-profile crime in the area, including an attack on police officer Tim Davis in March.
Coe College freshman Michelle Schupbach (right), 18, of Cedar Falls, said that while she’s aware of recent crime along First Avenue near the Cedar Rapids school, she has always felt safe when visiting her sister, Coe senior Andrea Schupbach (left), 21, and is not concerned.
“I heard it was an issue, but obviously it was not a factor in keeping me from coming,” Coe freshman Michelle Schupbach said Tuesday as she moved into Armstrong Hall.
Schupbach, an 18-year-old from Cedar Falls, said she is nervous about making friends and adjusting to classes but expressed little concern about safety. Her sister, Andrea Schupbach, 21, is a Coe senior. The elder Schupbach said she felt reassured in the spring when Coe officials sent e-mails and an emergency alert after violence nearby.
“It seems like they go to great efforts to make sure we are safe,” she said.
Mom Janet Schupbach, 53, said she’s not worried.
“We like Coe,” she said. “It’s a nice place.”
Officials at Coe, UNI and the UI — where classes all start Monday — said it’s important to coordinate with local police, so they know when an off-campus incident requires a student alert.
“You want people to be aware, but you don’t want to create an issue that’s not there,” said Dave Zarifis, UNI public safety director.
The number of shootings this summer in Waterloo is troubling, Zarifis said, but officials don’t want to create a panic among UNI students. At least a dozen people have been wounded by gunfire in Waterloo since May 1.
UNI Police monitor such situations and keep in close contact with Cedar Falls and Waterloo police, Zarifis said.
The Waterloo violence hasn’t been a concern cited by parents or students, though, UNI officials said.
University of Iowa students board a Red Route Cambus in front of Schaeffer Hall near downtown on Thursday evening, Aug. 20, 2009. Cambus will be expanding its weekend late night Saferide service by adding late service to the East Campus Shuttle, in addition to the existing Saferide Red and Blue routes. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
Parents often ask general questions about safety during visits or orientation, officials at three schools said, but at UNI and Coe this year, it did not seem to be more of a concern than in the past.
UNI student Haley Madison was home in Ankeny for the summer. She didn’t hear about the Waterloo shootings, but she said last week that future violence would be a concern because she also takes nursing classes at Allen College in Waterloo. She lives in Cedar Falls, near UNI, and takes courses there under a joint program.
For many UNI students, she said, Waterloo is seen as far enough from campus to not be a concern.
“The people I know who go to UNI don’t go to Waterloo for any reason,” Madison, 20, said.
At Coe and the UI, some of the crime has happened in neighborhoods bordering campus.
“I had heard about it, and you think, ‘What the heck is really going on down there?’ ” Ames parent Carol Williams, 49, said. “Is it really safe? How bad is it?”
Williams’ daughter, Katie, starts Monday at the UI. She talked to her daughter about safety, but the incoming freshman assured her mom it will be fine.
“She’s very used to going anywhere and being safe,” Williams said. “It’s probably a normal attitude for kids her age.”
JoeCamel
23. Aug, 2009
Wonder if those students in the first picture could look a little more bored or disrespectful?
ctiger
23. Aug, 2009
I think that's a studied response of most teenagers – wanting to look "cool"
Hugs4u
23. Aug, 2009
I dont see how they look disrespectful. They are sitting quietly and not standing and yelling which would be disrespectful. But since they probably heard the same from their parents before they left home, so when you hear something twice it does tend to be boring.
Hugs4u
23. Aug, 2009
Go to a town hall meeting about health care and watch the republicans there. Then you would see what being disrespectful at a meeting is..
jamesman
23. Aug, 2009
thats called democracy in action, the democrats taught us how to do that over the years, and the page was tore right out of their handbook………….. But thats different right?
ctiger
23. Aug, 2009
No, that is just your wishful thinking. What's been happening at the townhalls is nothing short of an organized attempt to stop the discussion.
jamesman
23. Aug, 2009
really, I attended in protest but it was not organized well by the supporters maybe (preprinted signs and the works) The republican party does not have the (watch this) "astroturf" organization like the democrat party does. Are you sure they are organized, show me proof. I can show proof the democrats are organizing their own supporter to attend.
This is people who are mad because the government is not listening to them, is overstepping their bounds, and is going to cost us health care, bankrupt the country with the HUGE taxes that we will all have to pay, and drive us deeper into debt with no chance of getting out of it any time soon. People are getting sick and tired of the government doing as they want, they are also upset they want to force a terrible health system without our say in the matter. This is genuine and real, not some paid protest or whatever crap you come up with.
BTW its political suicide to attack your voters like they are, try it with your boss, see how far it gets you
Hugs4u
23. Aug, 2009
No, if the democrats showed up at a meeting held by the republicans, they got arrested and stripped searched. they were never allowed into the republican meetings where they could act like idiots.
jamesman
23. Aug, 2009
LOL that was an isolated incident, but a clear sign of police abuse, also if I recall properly they were told to leave. But guess thats what happens when democrats vote for a bill to restrict free speech (created "free speech zones")
jamesman
23. Aug, 2009
LOL that was an isolated incident, but a clear sign of police abuse, also if I recall properly they were told to leave. But guess thats what happens when democrats vote for a bill to restrict free speech (created "free speech zones") (And yes dim whit bush supported that also, with other republicans)
ctiger
23. Aug, 2009
Their elders could learn from them, but what was there to get excited about?
calex
23. Aug, 2009
"Several Coe students said they feel safe on campus, which is bordered by busy First Avenue East. They are more careful, however, to stay in groups if they go into surrounding neighborhoods at night, they said."
As someone that unhappily attended Coe, the students are afraid to go into the surrounding neighborhood to buy pot or try to pass off a fake ID at a bar.
ctiger
23. Aug, 2009
It's good to hear that nothing much has changed there.
calex
23. Aug, 2009
After re-reading my post, I think I was too weak on the sarcasm. Many of the student body will gladly pick a representative to go score drugs off of someone they met at the whatever the Eastside Maidrite is called this year. They'll gladly go to the neighborhood bars that will look the other way on underage drinking. Yet, if scary people live in the neighborhood near Coe, they're afraid to go to their cars after sundown. I remember a letter to the editor questioning Coe's demolition of affordable single family houses and the impact on the availability of affordable housing for working families. Two rebuttals were written by Coe students. Both rebuttals focused on how scary it was to park on the streets where the houses were being tore down. Sad part, I too parked on the same streets and the only scary people were drunken Coe students.
JohnClark
23. Aug, 2009
Wow I wish the Gazette would blow up this discussion on politics, since it has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand.
I'm glad to see that students got this speech on safety, maybe it'll sink in for a few of them…maybe.
Hugs4u
23. Aug, 2009
The ditto heads listen to Rush Dumbaugh and only do what he tells them to do.
earthdog
23. Aug, 2009
Strange how you keep missing the point. It's about the scare tactics and the deliberate shutting down of any productive debate as the Democratic law makers are trying to clear up the confusion for the constituents.
JohnNone
23. Aug, 2009
With all due respect, you are completely wrong. In 2000 I tried to attend a Bush rally IN IOWA to hear what the candidate had to say. Because I didn't have an invitation, I was told I could not attend.
In other cases, both in 2000 and later, people who disagreed with Mr. Bush were corralled into fenced areas often a mile or more from where Mr. Bush was to appear.
These are scarcely "isolated incidents." Neither was the arrest and strip-search incident a singular occurrence.
JohnNone
23. Aug, 2009
PRECISELY!