Women at Duke do not feel safe, according to the recently-released Women's Initiative report. Citing concerns ranging from feeling uncomfortable in parking lots to fear of sexual assault, officials say these issues are as much rooted in students' and employees' perception of their safety as in documented security concerns.
As a result of the Women's Initiative research, administrators formed an ad hoc Security Task Force comprised of Executive Vice President Tallman Trask, Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta, Vice President for Campus Services Kemel Dawkins, Duke Police Chief Clarence Birkhead and other University and Health System officials.
"The task force was really to briefly diagnose the issues, [and] the rest was left to Dr. Trask, myself and Chief Birkhead," Moneta said. "Dr. Trask has made available half a million dollars, which we're trying to figure out how best to use [to improve campus safety]."
The task force's recommendations include measures such as improving visibility on campus and increasing surveillance and students' awareness of police presence on campus in order to address undergraduates', graduate students' and employees concerns regarding safety and security.
"A lot of what we're looking into are capital improvements, addressing things such as lighting, access to dorms and maybe technological redesigns: security cameras, for example," Birkhead said. "We're also doing some broad thinking, such as adding additional response or crowd abatement vehicles to increase our presence on and off campus."
In the report, undergraduate students were especially concerned about sexual assault and their feeling of general discomfort when walking about campus alone, especially at night and in unpopulated areas--a concern Women's Center Director Donna Lisker said mirrors the reports she receives at the Center.
"We heard a lot of concern from undergraduate women about acquaintance rape and also concern about being attacked by a stranger, whether they feel safe in parking lots, walking to and from night classes and on Central Campus," Lisker said. "We also heard from men who worried about the safety of their female friends and also worried that other people would perceive them as dangerous."
Lisker said efforts at educating students in sexual assault risk reduction continue to improve. "Certainly the general understanding that sexual assault can be perpetrated by an acquaintance and that it's unacceptable has come a long way, but we still have a way to go," she said.
Female graduate and professional students were also concerned about safety at night, though they did not share undergraduates' fears of sexual assault. Instead, they were more concerned with security while working on campus at night, the report said.
"What came out in the study was that graduate and professional students clearly have a different life on this campus than undergraduates," said Jacqueline Looney, associate dean of the graduate schools. "Many of these students are on campus very late and have to be concerned with getting back and forth to buildings in the dark." In contrast to both undergraduate and graduate students' concerns, female employees were most concerned with work situations in which they felt unsafe, said Judith White, assistant vice president and director of residential programming review. These concerns ranged from off-campus employees' sense of vulnerability when working at night or by themselves, to employees whose jobs entail dealing with people who have brought in complaints, to hospital employees who are concerned about violent patients or the risk of visitors bringing weapons into the facility.
"I think every situation will have to be looked at specifically," White said. "People were suggesting ['panic buttons' in some offices] so people felt they could contact the outside world if they were being threatened... [and also] making sure metal detectors are appropriately deployed so people can't bypass the ones we have and get into vulnerable areas of the hospital."
Looney added that while many of these concerns are more about perceived safety than actual occurrences of violence, even the perception of vulnerability marks a problem for the University.
"Some people will say that it's the students' perception that it's not safe, but we have to deal straight on with that perception," she said. "We are a university within a city, so the same things that may happen within a city may happen on campus." Cindy Yee contributed to this story.
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