For the third time in six months, a University of Tampa student has either been robbed, assaulted or murdered near campus. Tampa Police patrols have been beefed up as has UT security. In January UT and Tampa Police hosted a student safety seminar. And UT might add a mandated online course on personal safety – to complement the one it does on alcohol consumption.
Whenever I hear of these scary criminal and violent acts near UT, I hearken back to my second night of graduate school at Temple University in Philadelphia in 1970. After class I headed back to the university parking lot. It was probably 9:15 pm. The lot was already a crime scene.
A random, racially-motivated, drive-by shooting had claimed the life of a fellow student. A British Lit classmate, as it turned out, who I had never met. One who had arrived at the parking lot minutes before I did. Timing was everything. As well as fate.
But this was also North Philadelphia, what they called a “ghetto” back in the day. Temple wasn’t downtown; it was in a high-crime area. And it had remained so, despite a formidable Philly police presence, high-profile TU security and well-lit parking lots.
In UT’s case, the issue is more addressable. No, the campus is not sequestered in the suburbs or insulated in a college-town cocoon. The campus is downtown. But downtown Tampa isn’t North Philly. Sure, there is public housing nearby – and, yes, it’s a problem. No, you can’t harshly judge all its residents, but let’s be real, if politically incorrect.
But here’s the biggest – and most addressable – issue. All these criminal acts took place after 2 a.m. There’s only so much police patrols and campus security can do – short of creating a mini-police-state ambience. And, no, you can’t put a moat around the North Boulevard Homes public housing project.
UT now has an enrollment over 6,000. A lot of the students live on campus. They’re young, feeling immortal and residing in an urban setting by choice. But by definition, wherever you are, nothing good happens after 2 a.m. Not back at home, wherever that is, not in the suburbs, not in a college town. Let alone downtown Tampa with adjacent public housing and a smattering of transients.
TPD spokeswoman Laura McElroy put it into perfect context. “It isn’t necessarily the location,” she told the Tampa Tribune. “It’s about who’s out after midnight, who’s out in the early morning hours. Often that’s when the criminal element is out.”
In the most recent incident, less than two weeks ago, a UT student was robbed at gunpoint near the Martinez Sports Center on North Boulevard. He was headed to the Metro Market convenience store on Kennedy Boulevard.
At 5 a.m.
That’s way too late as well as entirely too early. Be smart.