Involved with violence close to campus, Temple College has rolled out a wide range of security measures. Its newest effort, set to launch subsequent month, is a database rating close by properties that scores rental models on a wide range of security measures.
The concept has been within the works since spring and is a part of a multipronged strategy to public security for the Philadelphia campus, which has seen plenty of violent incidents in close by neighborhoods—together with a scholar killed in a botched theft final fall.
The concept, college officers say, is to assist college students determine and select secure housing amenities, that includes licensed landlords and properties that present a transparent dedication to public security, whereas excluding unlicensed landlords.
Rating Properties
Temple already has a web site that helps college students discover off-campus housing, however that’s strictly a database of space housing amenities. Now the college will add a rankings part.
“Throughout the nation and within the metropolis of Philadelphia violent crime is a matter, so we had been considering of ways in which we may tackle that particularly in the neighborhood by which our college students stay,” mentioned Ken Kaiser, senior vice chairman and chief working officer of Temple College. “We seemed throughout the nation and noticed another colleges that had been doing one thing related and determined that this seems to be like it’s one thing we’d have the ability to use and tailor to the wants of Temple.”
This system, which hasn’t been formally named but, may have a tiered system moderately than numeric rankings. Solely properties close to campus with licensed landlords might be listed, which Temple officers hope will spur unlicensed landlords within the space to accumulate the right paperwork.
“That is about making the group round Temple a cleaner, safer place for our college students and for the group. In the event you’re not prepared to do these items, good luck getting tenants,” Kaiser mentioned.
The tiered system might be damaged down at a premium and fundamental degree, which means the extra security contains a property has, the higher it would do in Temple’s rating, which can even take into account license and inspection violations. Properties additionally should be inside Temple’s patrol zone close to campus to be within the rankings.
The tiers will probably be represented by a cherry emblem on the fundamental degree and a diamond on the premium degree, in line with preliminary designs shared with Inside Larger Ed.
“We wish it to be a software for college kids and their households,” Kaiser mentioned.
He anticipates some pushback from landlords however believes the underside line—doubtlessly misplaced income—will drive property homeowners to make enhancements.
However landlords close to campus who’re excluded for not being licensed may be added in the event that they purchase the right paperwork and meet Temple’s requirements for safety features, Kaiser mentioned. The college additionally gives assist to the landlords who’re making an attempt to fulfill these requirements within the type of $2,500 grants that can be utilized so as to add safety features comparable to lights and cameras.
Thus far, between 20 and 25 property homeowners have taken Temple up on such grants. Kaiser suspects that quantity can be larger if extra landlords within the space had been correctly licensed.
In launching the rankings database, Temple is drawing inspiration from the Niner Selection Program on the College of North Carolina at Charlotte, which has an identical strategy.
The Niner Selection Program at UNC Charlotte is damaged down into inexperienced and gold ranges. To qualify for the decrease inexperienced tier, landlords should meet 17 security elements, together with entrance doorways with peepholes, working locks, enough lighting and commitments from homeowners or property managers to attend crime-prevention and security conferences. The gold-level designation requires the identical 17 security elements however provides 11 extra, of which landlords should meet no less than 5. Extra security options embrace blue gentle emergency telephones, surveillance techniques and the employment of a licensed and insured safety firm, to call a number of examples.
This system has been in place since 2014, in line with the UNC Charlotte web site, which describes it as “a security initiative designed to assist college students and fogeys make knowledgeable selections about off-campus dwelling choices.” Nonetheless, the web site notes “it isn’t a stamp approval or endorsement” from the college or native police and never “a assure of scholar security.”
Off-Campus Security
For Temple, the rankings database is only one of many measures that officers hope will hold college students secure. Some estimates put the variety of college students dwelling close to Temple’s campus at round 10,000. Many stay in adjoining neighborhoods the place shootings and different violent crimes happen with some regularity, regardless of expanded patrol efforts by Temple’s police power.
Such considerations have even pushed dad and mom to rent non-public safety to patrol areas close to campus.
Regardless of parental considerations, some college students have recommended that fears are overblown.
“As a result of Temple is such a big landmark, numerous issues are reported as being in Temple’s surrounding space. It’s by far a really secure faculty to attend,” Gianni Quattrocchi, Temple’s scholar physique president, informed Inside Larger Ed in June. Many different college students echoed an identical sentiment in a college security survey, reporting that they felt secure on campus, although much less so outdoors Temple.
However to placate fearful dad and mom, Temple has taken a number of key steps, together with creating and filling the new place of vice chairman of public security; conducting an audit of campus security companies; launching a Job Drive on Violence Discount, which incorporates school, employees, college students, dad and mom and group members; and deploying the RAVE Temple Guardian private security app, which permits college students to contact campus police and gives “digital” secure walks, amongst different options. The college has additionally launched into an effort to rent extra law enforcement officials, which is transferring slowly.
Michael Rein, director of organizational administration at Margolis Healy, a campus safety agency, mentioned that whereas faculties have way more management over their very own housing amenities, they aren’t powerless on the subject of securing off-campus properties. Schools can present safety tricks to college students and work with native landlords and regulation enforcement on widespread security objectives.
Rein added that college students additionally should make efforts to maintain themselves secure.
“I feel it’s vital for college kids to acknowledge that off-campus housing just isn’t a utopia, which means that the identical security precautions they’d take at their house or in on-campus housing would nonetheless be acceptable in that context,” Rein mentioned. “Meaning working collectively with their housemates, their landlords, their neighbors, to offer for the most secure setting they’ll.”
At Temple, Kaiser calls scholar security “the No. 1 precedence.” He’s optimistic concerning the general modifications made and the potential the rankings database has not solely to enhance security close to campus but additionally to construct a greater group round Temple as neighbors come collectively.
“I actually do imagine [the rankings database] may have a really optimistic impact on the protection and the standard of the models in the neighborhood, in addition to assist with group relations,” Kaiser mentioned.
