A group of six SMU journalism majors recently completed their look into college police departments across Texas, and they now hope for more students to take a closer look at safety within their university.
In an article published in this week’s Fort Worth Weekly, students from the University of North Texas and SMU joined forces to inspect security and safety on college campuses.
Under the direction of journalism Professor Craig Flournoy, the team — Megan Connolly, Christine Dao (added later), Farrar Johnson, Pablo Lastra, Jennifer McDowell and Jessica Savage — began their research in mid-August as part of “The Light of Day Project,” funded by the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.
“When we started working on the project,” said Lastra, “we were going to look at crime statistics in the [Dallas-Fort Worth] metroplex, and then see if they matched up with what the schools were telling their students.”
What began as a local search, however, turned statewide after students from students from the University of North Texas who agreed to collaborate on the project.
Together, according to Flournoy, “students compiled crime statistics from more than 100 colleges and universities in Texas from 2001-2003.”
Each of the group members took on a handful of universities to research, looking for a correlation between the crime numbers themselves and what was told to the student body.
“We were looking to see how each school reported campus crime,” Savage explained.
Following the statistical examinations, the team decided to visit a few of the schools in order to get feedback on what they found. As the semester went on, long road trips and countless interviews were no strangers to the Mustangs on a mission.
Upon the stops at each school, as Lastra described, “we talked to the students, trying to see if the police were doing their jobs properly.”
When all was said and done, the group compiled an article on the issue of safety among Texas schools entitled “Insecurity on Campus.”
With publication, Savage hopes to spread the word of student safety at all universities.
“I hope people pay more attention to crime on campus,” she said, “and they realize that they have the right to access information if they want to.”
Flournoy is likewise pleased with the results. “SMU often has then image of being little more than a party school attended by rich kids with no social conscience,” he explained. “Here’s an example of six SMU students who showed otherwise.
