Safety of SLU??? (Kansas City, Columbia: crime, home, neighborhoods)

[stone0990]

My daughter was just accepted to the Pre-Law Scholars program at SLU! She has not completely committed to attending, but anytime I tell anyone where she was accepted I hear what a dangerous area the school is located!

As a mother, this terrifies me! How safe is the campus and the area in/around the area? She was awarded a full academic scholarship and will live on campus.

We live in a smaller city compared to St Louis, but this is a girl who dreams of living in NYC someday...but she has no "street sense", if that makes any sense!

Give me the good, the bad, and the ugly...please!!!

[aragx6]

First of all, congratulations to your daughter! This sounds like a wonderful opportunity for her!

SLU's campus itself is very safe, but the area directly surrounding it is less so. That said, reports of it being wildly dangerous are definitely overblown. It was much worse in the '80s (my mom went to grad school there at the time) but it has made huge progress in the last decade. I have spent a lot of time in Midtown -- the area where your daughter would most likely spend her free time off campus, and have never had any trouble at all.

It's an urban area, no doubt, but I don't want you to be petrified or anything. I would suggest a couple of things for her safety (and your well-being!): #1 Get her signed up for a women's self-defense class. They will have great tips to help her become more street smart and to recognize and mitigate threats. #2 Get her a keychain pepper spray (I got mine at Bass Pro, but they have them at lots of places) and #3 Travel in groups.

Honestly, even the sleepiest college towns have crimes of opportunity. I went to school at Mizzou in Columbia and a guy friend of mine was jumped and beaten on Broadway for no reason at all and I've known many SLU students who never had any problems of any kind.

[BoomBoxing]

Yeah I think common sense should prevail here. SLU has over 16,000 students many of which live on campus. The SLU campus has plenty of security and the neighborhood around it isn't that bad as far as urban neighborhoods go. It's not like there are murders happening regularly or anything like that. The worst most SLU kids has to worry about is getting their bike stolen or car broken into. And simple precautions can help deter anything like that from happening.

You should never let something like worry over crime prevent your daughter from getting a good (and free!) education a school like SLU. I'd make sure she understands basic street smarts (stay in well lit areas, stay in groups when in unfamiliar areas, maybe carry some mace in her purse) but not act like she's moving into a warzone or anything. Trust me, it's not that bad.

[billiken]

I'm a graduate of SLU, and my mom was very nervous about my attendance there. I absolutely loved it though! It's not that bad--SLU takes safety extremely seriously. The campus is very well patrolled, and instead of walking home alone, you can always call a public safety escort. A few blocks north of campus, things start getting shady. I went to grad school in a small college town, and there were just as many crime incidents there. A full academic scholarship is a tough thing to pass up, especially if she plans to go to law school.

[stlcitygirl]

I'd be more worried about her doing pre-law right now, I kid I kid, kind of.

[lifelongMOgal]

One thing she and you need to understand is that any college campus can be a dangerous place for young women. If she doesn't have street smarts you need to work with her on that from this moment forward. Your daughter needs to aquire the skill of situational awareness.

Suggest you start with the book/audio book by Gaven de Becker "The Gift of Fear". I suggest the audio book because I think it will have more effect. Also suggest you listen to it together with your daughter. Amazon.com: The Gift of Fear (9780440226192): Gavin de Becker: Books

Your daughter also needs to be able to recognize "friendly predators" in the form of predatory male students/potential boyfriends. Amazon.com: Saving Beauty from the Beast: How to Protect Your Daughter From an Unhealthy Relationship (9780316735520): Vicki Crompton, Ellen Zelda Kessner: Books

Enrolling her in a good self-defense class before she goes off to college is also a prudent measure. Your local police department may have officers who offer such programs or know of the better ones.

A good website to help your daughter on her path: Crime Safety Security: safety for women & child safety tips

[MUTGR]

Originally Posted by stone0990

My daughter was just accepted to the Pre-Law Scholars program at SLU! She has not completely committed to attending, but anytime I tell anyone where she was accepted I hear what a dangerous area the school is located!

As a mother, this terrifies me! How safe is the campus and the area in/around the area? She was awarded a full academic scholarship and will live on campus.

We live in a smaller city compared to St Louis, but this is a girl who dreams of living in NYC someday...but she has no "street sense", if that makes any sense!

Give me the good, the bad, and the ugly...please!!!

I attended law school at SLU just over ten years ago.

While I agree that any college campus, whether urban, suburban or small town, can be dangerous, particularly for young women who are alone and vulnerable, I do think there are some heightened risks to SLU given the surrounding areas.

You do read about the occassional stick-up or mugging of SLU students. This primarily happens off-campus but it has also happened on campus in the past year or so. I know when I attended a decade ago I was asked on more than one occassion to walk female classmates to their cars after an evening class or event.

So, I wouldn't worry too much, but to pretend it would be no different than any other campus in a smaller college town or a more suburban setting is, I think, going too far.

Here's a link to an incident that happened in 2010:

http://www.kmov.com/home/Two-student...-82063672.html

[aragx6]

I'm almost afraid to argue with you because it might make this woman more afraid when we just go back and forth posting terrible news stories, but something like that just happened on MU's campus.

MU student reports on-campus robbery - Columbia Missourian

This one too:
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/st...illance-video/

[billiken]

^ Exactly. I can pull stories too from different schools...but that's not the point. College students are easy targets. SLU has so much security that it's kind of ridiculous. I think on my original campus tour, they said SLU's public safety department is larger than Kansas City's police force.

[MUTGR]

Originally Posted by billiken

^ Exactly. I can pull stories too from different schools...but that's not the point. College students are easy targets. SLU has so much security that it's kind of ridiculous. I think on my original campus tour, they said SLU's public safety department is larger than Kansas City's police force.

Now Billiken, I'm not disputing what you were told, but I'm having a hard time believing that a relatively small private Jesuit University like SLU has a larger public safety department than the police department in Kansas city, a city of almost 500,000 people.

And yes, incidents happen at all schools, big, small, rural, urban, suburban, but I still say prudence and common sense dictates that there would be more to be concerned about at SLU, given the surrounding area, than Mizzou.