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January 31, 2005
Dear Students, Parents, Faculty and Staff:
Let me start with the bottom line: Nothing is more important than
the
safety and security of our students. Nothing.
The deaths of Christopher Elser and, now, of Linda Trinh have focused
the attention of everyone in the Homewood campus community as never
before on issues of security. The university has been working for
months -- in fact, from even before Chris' death last April -- to
address security concerns head-on.
In a message last week to parents, available online at
http://webapps.jhu.edu/jhuniverse/today/trinh3.cfm
I outlined much of what has been accomplished so far.
I write now to announce a series of new initiatives we are taking
to enhance the safety and security of students on the Homewood campus
and in the neighborhood nearby. Some of these steps will go into effect
in the short term, either immediately or within the next 30 days.
Some will take a little longer to implement, from 30 to 90 days. Others
are long-term initiatives, but ones that we intend to pursue as vigorously
and as quickly as possible.
To underscore that, I am announcing today that the deans of the Krieger
School and the Whiting School and I have committed an initial $2 million
in new funding to finance the improvements I will outline in this
action plan.
We know that is just the beginning. Our eventual investment will be
much more than that. But I pledge to you that we will spend whatever
it takes to secure this community.
On some points of the action plan, we can give you relatively full
information now. On other points, some details remain to be worked
out and will be announced later.
I. Immediate action:
1. We will hire off-duty Baltimore City police officers to patrol
in Charles Village at night and overnight. These officers will be
in their police uniforms and will be armed. They will patrol in university
vehicles and, at times, on foot. These patrols will begin as soon
as we can engage the officers.
2. We will contract for additional foot-patrol guards from Broadway
Services Inc. Silver Star Security. At least at first, we will assign
officers on the night and overnight shifts to be a visible security
presence along the Charles Street corridor from Wolman and McCoy halls
and the Eisenhower Library south to Homewood Apartments. That deployment
will be adjusted with experience and with input from students. [BSI
provides the bulk of the guard force at the Johns Hopkins Medical
Institutions, Johns Hopkins Bayview and Mount Washington campuses.]
3. As of Feb. 7, we will replace the current guard service that staffs
the security desk at Homewood Apartments with BSI guards.
4. We will station a BSI guard at the Bradford Apartments to check
IDs and obtain positive identification of all guests and visitors.
[We will be vigilant to ensure BSI provides personnel for all of these
assignments who are well-trained and who meet our high expectations
for performance.]
5. We have accelerated the additional evaluation necessary to begin
implementing a system of video surveillance cameras, to be monitored
on a 24/7 basis from a state-of-the-art Security Department communications
and monitoring. We expect to be able to finalize our plan by Feb.
28. Phased implementation of a multi-faceted plan will follow expeditiously.
6. As I outlined last week, we have for months aggressively pursued
city, electric utility and university improvements in street lighting
in Charles Village. Since then, we have compiled a list of 22 specific
recommendations for additional improvements in lighting in the community.
We will implement those recommendations as they apply to university
buildings and immediately begin working with owners of private property
to encourage and assist them to install the necessary lights.
7. Hardware that will improve the reliability of our on- and off-campus
network of blue light emergency telephones has been ordered and will
be installed within four weeks.
8. We will urgently address the concerns about shuttle service cited
at our recent meetings with students and work with students to identify
the most effective approach.
9. As I announced last week, we are adding parent and student representatives
to our Committee on Campus Safety and Security. We will convene the
first of frequent, regular meetings of the expanded committee very
shortly. The committee, under the chairmanship of Dr. James McGill,
senior vice president for finance and administration, will monitor
our progress in implementing this action plan and recommend additional
steps.
10. I will appoint a group of outside experts to conduct a review
of campus security, and to recommend improvements. This group will
report directly to me. This measure will reinforce our ongoing consultation
with peer universities to ensure that we are following best safety
and security practices.
II: Thirty- to ninety-day action:
11. We will tighten resident and guest check-in procedures at Wolman
and McCoy halls. Specifically, we will reconfigure the lobby areas
so that anyone entering the building, including guests, must pass
through turnstiles and identify themselves to a security officer.
There will be no "tailgating." That is, no one, including
residents and other students, will be able to enter the building with
or on the heels of someone else without presenting proper identification.
The renovations necessary to implement the new system should be complete
within about 45 days.
12. On the campus side of Charles Street, we will impose similar resident
and guest check-in procedures at the Alumni Memorials Residences,
where, since fall, additional guards have been stationed. Given the
physical configuration of these buildings -- which each have multiple
entrances -- we will have to construct gates across and guard stations
at the courtyards of both AMR I and AMR II. Residents of those buildings,
and of buildings A and B, will be required to pass through those gates.
They and their visitors and guests will be required to provide positive
identification. There will be no tailgating. We are engaging architects
immediately to draw up plans and expect to start construction before
the end of the semester.
13. We will devise and implement a new system to provide students
with
reliable information about the security systems and practices of off-campus
apartment buildings. And we will work actively to encourage landlords
of those buildings to improve security.
III. Longer-term action:
14. We are committed to meeting the need of our students for more
university-owned housing, sufficient housing so that any undergraduate
student who desires to live in a university building can do so. Most
of you know that we broke ground this fall on the Charles Commons,
which will house more than 600 students when it opens in the fall
of 2006. I also have directed that we speed up the planning process
for additional
university housing, including an expanded freshman quadrangle on the
campus side of Charles Street.
15. We must and will continue to work in collaboration with our neighbors
and with the city of Baltimore on a variety of fronts. Our goal must
be to protect the stability and enhance the livability of the nearby
neighborhoods where so many of our students -- and our faculty and
staff -- reside.
This action plan will evolve and grow as we pursue it and as we receive
more recommendations from our outside experts, our standing committee
and from you, the students, parents, faculty and staff on whose behalf
we are undertaking all these efforts. In that regard, I want to announce
the availability of a new venue for communicating with the university
and among yourselves. A new message forum is online now at http://remembering.jhu.edu
The forum is divided into two parts. One provides you with the opportunity
to record your remembrances of or thoughts about Linda Trinh. Her
family will be most appreciative of the comments you post
there.
The other section gives you the opportunity to provide feedback on
this action plan and to raise other suggestions or concerns as to
campus
security.
One registration will enable you to post in both parts of the forum.
My colleagues in the administration and I very much look forward to
your feedback.
Let me close this message as I opened it: Nothing is more important
than the safety and security of our students. I pledge to you today
that we will not waver in our determination to fully implement this
plan. And I pledge that we will never lose sight of the imperative
to provide the entire Homewood campus community a safe environment
for living, learning and working, and to do so in close collaboration
with the city, the neighborhoods, and each of you.
Sincerely,
William R. Brody
President
The Johns Hopkins University
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