Latest reports of crime on the Hill cause parents to worry about residents’ safety

Since hearing news of a sexual assault in one of the De Neve
buildings and then an armed-robbery in the Saxon Residential
Suites, students have expressed concern about their personal safety
and the condition of their housing environment.

And they are not alone.

A number of UCLA students’ parents ““ the people
who often pay the room and board fees to the housing administration
““ are concerned as well.

Elizabeth Chan, mother of Tiffany Chan, who lives in Saxon, said
she was “just totally shocked” to hear about Sunday
morning’s robbery.

“I was just very stunned that this would happen at a
school like UCLA … in an area like Westwood,” she said.

Like many students, Chan and other Bruin parents questioned
whether safety measures were adequate. Chan said, “I think
this says a lot about security and a lot about the way security is
run.”

Rachel Magallon ““ mother of second-year international
development student Erica Magallon, who lives in the Fir building
of De Neve ““ said she was concerned about safety
particularly in De Neve, because it is open to the street. She
hopes the university will step up security efforts.

“I wonder, though,” she said, “if the school
would be willing to spend more money.”

Students and university officials from many different
departments have discussed various ways to improve security.

After the rape allegations, students and housing officials
discussed the possibility of check-in desks, similar to those in
the high-rises, for the De Neve buildings.

After the armed-robbery many brought up the possibility of
increased Community Service Officer and UCPD patrols, better
lighting and even a wall.

Meeting with students Tuesday night, Alfred Nam, an associate
housing director, said housing officials are considering putting a
wall around the Saxon and Hitch suites and the university
apartments. However, such a proposal might run into trouble with
evacuation and fire-codes, Nam said.

But the idea shows that even extreme measures are being
considered. And like Nam, Office of Residential Life officials and
University Police say security is a top priority.

But as new security options are considered and as students
recover from the shock of violence so close to their homes, parents
are often left feeling disconnected ““ distant and
helpless.

“Maybe the system needs to be beefed up, but I don’t
know everything else there is to know because I’m a parent
outside of the Los Angeles area,” said Margie Morita, mother
of Michael Morita, a second-year mechanical engineering student who
lives in the Birch building of De Neve.

Margie Morita said there isn’t much of a way for parents
to know about their children’s safety without “actively
going online to see what crimes are being committed.”

Some students, meanwhile, fear their parents will be left
worried and concerned if they tell them about the recent episodes
of violence. Considering this, they keep quiet.

Patrick Hamo, a second-year mechanical engineering student, said
his parents wouldn’t react “totally unreasonably”
if they heard about the robbery, but added, “I’m better
off not talking to them.”

Like Hamo, Ross Otto, a second-year cognitive science and
philosophy student, said he considers the armed-robbery to be a
special case, not a random attack. But both also fear their parents
wouldn’t see it this way.

“They’d get unnecessarily concerned,” Ross
said of his parents if they heard the latest news.
“There’s nothing they can really do.”

And while Hamo and Otto fear their parents would worry too much,
Chan said the fact that many students don’t consider the
latest violence random doesn’t make her any more
comfortable.

Chan worries the problem is an unsafe environment and that just
because her daughter hasn’t herself been subject to violence,
it doesn’t mean she’s safe on the Hill.

“I’m worried,” she said.

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