I Agree with Survey Results: Most Students Feel Safe on Campus

Guest blog by Natasha Williams

In my position as an intern in UNC Charlotte's Office of Public Relations, I had access to some wonderful information on the student perception of personal safety at UNC Charlotte. A comprehensive survey of 3,000 students was conducted several months ago to measure students’ perception of campus safety.

The findings validated my thoughts on campus safety and, in my opinion, should make the student body feel safe. Some of the findings include:
• Nearly 90 percent of respondents felt very safe or reasonably safe while in class.
• Nearly 95 percent of students have never been victims of crime on the UNC Charlotte campus.
• Of the 5 percent who reported being victimized in 2009, more than 65 percent suffered a property crime and 24 percent suffered a personal, violent crime.
• Overall, 60-plus percent of respondents said they feel very safe or reasonably safe on campus; 22 percent felt neither safe nor unsafe.
• Nearly 60 percent of students responded that they had never been in a situation on campus where they feared for their safety.
• Participants were asked about the degree to which they are worried that a mass assault similar to those at other universities will happen here at UNC Charlotte. Nearly 70 percent responded they were not worried to moderately worried.

As a transfer student from a small private school to UNC Charlotte, I was definitely concerned about safety. In my couple years of attending the university, I’ve found UNC Charlotte is a safe school, and I’m glad to read that students feel the same way.

However, I do acknowledge the fact that crime is everywhere, including this university (we had a small case of arson last night), but it is certainly not a major problem or something students talk about every day. Even post-Virginia Tech, I think the overall feeling of campus safety is positive at UNC Charlotte.

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Natasha Williams is a senior majoring in Communication Studies