When The Xavierite Editorial Board creates an editorial we try to speak as accurately as we can for those involved on our paper’s staff. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we don’t, but we always try to get as apt a gauge on the pulse of the St. Xavier community that we can through our own personal…shall we say…viewpoint?
But we’re going to take the liberty and speak for what we feel is a good chunk of America – or the state of Illinois, at the very least – when we say that our elected officials seem to be clueless for a good amount of time.
This week it came to pass that St. Xavier University’s Public Safety department is now able to report on crashes that happen on campus – albeit smaller ones – without having to go to the Chicago Police Department.
Without trying to sound ungrateful at the valued service provided by the Chicago Police Department, but do/did we really need them to report accidents on campus?
We understand that some accidents where the parties involved are hurt or the situation would otherwise be particularly dangerous that a larger law enforcement body would be a necessity. But what we take particular issue with is the fact that Public Safety has no running records of how many accidents are likely to occur on our campus within a given year.
And not to minimize the jobs of our own Public Safety, but isn’t SXU comparatively small potatoes when it looked at upon the larger scale of the Chicagoland area. Chicago is the murder capitol of the world.
The Chicago Police’s efforts are better served in more dire areas than on filing small property damage reports in the St. Xavier parking lot because two students got into a fender bender.
This data may seem trivial or unimportant, but think of the good that record keeping and analytics to do. If our Public Safety had longer running records of accidents on campus then perhaps they would be able to not only have the data but also analyze it and thus be able to find ways to cut down on on-campus accidents.
We applaud the fact that Public Safety has taken the initiative to take relatively smaller claims into their domain, thus making it easier for smaller accidents to be reported and making the useful data that much more attainable.
Yet the fact that they can only do this now is quite startling. Why should the university have to have gone to the state for clearance on keeping record of these sorts of issues? These accidents are events that could be handled by local authority but should always be available to those in the sphere of the area affected – in this case, those in charge of the keeping our campus safe in all regards.
There are currently no accident records that we were able to analyze this issue. That information won’t be readily available until the end of the year when Public Safety has data to analyze.
But what we do know is when that information is ready; we’ll feel a lot better about future accident prevention. Because not only will the office of Public Safety be watching out for students, but the ever watchful staff of The Xavierite will be there to report those statistics and report on how safe our conditions truly are.
If you would like to send a letter to the editor, email us at thexavierite@yahoo.com. Remember to include your name, major (or title/departemet if you are a staff/faculty member). A letter title is recommended, but not mandatory. Letters may not be printed if they contain libel or profanity.
The Xavierite Staff
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