Keeping Campus Safe

Keeping Campus Safe
By Cory Helie

With the recent safety alerts dispatched to UNK students involving a sex offender on campus, it brings up the topic of whether or not the right safety concerns are being raised over who is allowed to live on campus. On the University of Nebraska at Kearney’s web page, it reassures parents that their children will be safe, and has a team that cracks down on violence on campus.

It states:
As a parent, there is no single more important question to ask during the college search process than, “Will my child be safe?” When you come to visit us, talk to UNK students or their parents and they’ll most likely tell you the reason they chose to come here, above all, is because it felt like a safe, community-centered environment they could call “home”.

Maybe if you ask one of the students now, they could comment on how there was an individual on campus who was a registered sex offender, or how a man in 2005 went hysterical after falling in love with a woman who didn’t share the same feelings and eventually assaulted her and broke a glass door inside of a residence hall. Those students on campus could also mention how there was a man on campus in recent years who raped students, and UNK Police never apprehended.

Certainly these gentlemen had records of some sort that could have been pointed out by UNK officials if they went to that measure. There should be a way to distinguish people with mental instabilities from the other residence to ensure their safety. It would not make sense to outcast these people, but they should not be allowed access to campus late at night. Beefing up campus security would be a positive step in the right direction for the University.

In recent years, the UNK Police have been a laughable force amongst students on campus. They have been regarded as rent-a-cops, party cops, and downright old in some cases. By recently adding more officers to the bunch, the UNK Police seem to be getting their things together. It is just unfortunate that it hadn’t come sooner, to discover the most recent case of a sexual offender on campus Tyler Sedlak.
Sedlak was a student who is currently on the Nebraska Sex Offenders List. He was banned from campus for disruptive behavior. His status on the NSOL is a 15 year duration from August 8th, 2008 for being guilty of Sexual Abuse in the Third Degree when he or she subjecting another person to sexual contact without the latter's consent.

Why weren’t students informed of this before he was allowed on campus for over a year. Whether he was a registered student or not, he spent time on campus, and apparently caused disruptive behavior and reportedly creeped people out.

Had there been something done about these sooner, at least one disruption on campus would have been prevented. Keeping unstable people off at campus at night would make the place a little safer, and make parents sleep a little better at night, after all of the unfortunate things that happen.

Sources:
University of Nebraska at Kearney Website: www.unk.edu
Nebraska Sex Offenders Registry: http://www.nsp.state.ne.us/sor/Subject.cfm?vREGNUM=200808HRK

Claims:
* University officials need to work harder at keeping psychologically unstable people off of campus.
* By beefing up security, the campus will in turn be safer.