Somebody ripped a sink out of the wall causing $11,000 in damages (see page 1). Two men broke into a woman’s dorm room at 4 a.m. (see page 1). A library employee was assaulted in front of the Glickman Library (see page 2). A police officer was attacked in a Gorham dorm (see page 3). The Towers almost blew up after somebody hit a gas pipe with a car (see page 3). Somebody keeps ripping down pro-choice bulletin boards in the Woodbury Campus Center (see page 6).
This edition is full of stories about crime. About attacks and break-ins and potential explosions.
In the world of journalism having a lot of stories like these isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We want people to pick up the newspaper. And people like to read about violence and destruction. It works well for us.
But after I looked at the story list for this week’s edition I was not excited about the prospect of papers flying off the racks. I was concerned.
First, I was concerned because I thought we might be pandering to sensationalism. I don’t want to be the kind of newspaper that puts a story about an attack on the front page just because a lot of people will read it. I don’t want to fill the pages with crime stories if they don’t have any effect on the majority of my audience, the USM community.
In this edition we’re running nine news stories, five of which are about some sort of crime, in most cases, pretty serious criminal activity.
I looked at each of the stories and considered whether I had used my resources correctly: Should I have assigned Lindsay to do a story about University budget problems instead of the story about the woman who awoke at 4 a.m. to find two men in her dorm room? Should Erin have done something about the possibility of an increase in student activity fees instead of the story about vandals ripping down pro-choice bulletin boards twice in a two-week period?
I don’t think we’ve presented a tainted image of what’s happening at USM just to attract readers. I think I made the right decision.
After all, there aren’t many things more important than keeping students safe when they’re sleeping or allowing peoples to freely express ideas in a public university.
That lead me to my second concern: there are a lot of people engaging in some serious criminal activity at USM. I’ve been at The Free Press for three years and this is one of the worst crime runs I can remember.
And we’re not talking about stolen wallets. A police officer and a library assistant were attacked. Two men were found in a woman’s dorm room in the middle of the night while she was sleeping. An alleged hit and run almost led to a dorm explosion.
What’s going on?
I thought the University was going to do something drastic after an intruder was found in two women’s Philippi Hall dorm room closet earlier in the semester. I thought someone might consider increasing staffing at the front desks of every dorm. Everyone should be checked when they enter a dorm. All guests should be signed in. This happens at Portland Hall, but not the other eight dorms on the Gorham campus.
But apparently nothing has changed.
There’s also a major issue of students keeping their dorm room doors unlocked. Police think the Portland Hall woman’s door was unlocked when the two men allegedly broke in.
Again, the University has failed to address the issue.
I’ve been told by a resident adviser that University efforts to inform students about dorm safety consist of a flier distributed at the beginning of the semester. It wouldn’t take much time or effort to bring students and dorm staff together on any given night to talk about dorm safety. A mandatory meeting is the least the University should do.
I’m a little unclear on what they’re waiting for.
I have some advice for the University: Look at this week’s paper. Look at the crime. Ask yourself what you’re doing about it. There are a lot of things short of a military lock-down you can do.
It’s OK to make a big deal about it. Our safety is a big deal.