Despite recent setbacks for downtown safety, a local alder told a student government committee that the city is continuing to attempt high standards of safety in the campus area.
Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, told Associated Students of Madison Legislative Affairs Committee that City Council has worked to advance various initiatives benefitting University of Wisconsin students regarding safety, housing and alcohol policies.
Resnick said after the shooting on the 600 block of University Avenue in May, the city spent $50,000 to enforce additional overtime policing throughout the summer and installed more security cameras and light fixtures to maintain an adequate degree of safety on campus.
“It changed my entire perspective on campus safety,” Resnick said, adding he was relieved no UW students were involved or targeted in the gunfire. “UW students, for the most part, are very safe on this campus, but it’s the city responsibility to make sure off-campus is also safe.”
Legislative Affairs Chair Dan Statter said there is always room for debate on whether the city does enough to promote campus safety. He added two of the three individuals involved in the shooting would not have been caught had it not been for the city’s installation of security cameras around campus and other efforts.
“As horrible of an issue that it was, I am satisfied, and I believe most students can say that they feel safe on campus,” he said.
Statter said the council’s work regarding campus safety has exceeded expectations.
He said Resnick and others have been proactive in providing pedestrian lighting, increasing hours for patrol officers and widening the roaming range of taxi drivers to scope out violent acts.
“They may not see all the changes around them, but there’s not a day that goes by that the Common Council and [Resnick] are not working toward ensuring that campus is more safe,” Statter said.
Another way Resnick said the city has helped the student community is by requiring building inspectors to protect student security deposits and by educating students on their housing rights.
Legislative Affairs’ push to pass the Responsible Action Bill in the Legislature is progressing well, according to Vice Chair Morgan Rae. The bill would allow underage students under the influence of alcohol to call city and state police to report instances of sexual assault or alcohol intoxication without having to worry about receiving an underage drinking ticket themselves.
Resnick said he is a strong advocate of the bill.
“I absolutely support it and absolutely encourage it,” he said. “Any efforts that ASM can do to push that at the state level would be more than welcoming.”
UW Police Department’s primary responsibility is to assist victims, and that duty does not change when students are intoxicated, Resnick said. Writing underage tickets is the least of UWPD’s concerns when there is a victim of sexual assault or heavy intoxication, he said.
Legislative Affairs also began putting together budget packets to send to state legislators lobbying for more funding to the UW System in its next biennial budget.
“Most specifically, we’re focusing on the tuition cap,” Statter said. “We want the Legislature to tell the UW System the years of 5.5 percent tuition increases are over. Tuition is high enough, and the university system should find ways within its current budget to quit shifting the burden solely onto students’ shoulders.”
