ASU has been having a rough year. Sun Devil football dropped from the Associated Press' top 25. Men's basketball obviously didn't stand too much of a chance after we found that Ike liked the promise of millions in the NBA more than us.
But darn it, ASU has done its part in making sure that the state of Arizona nabbed first place in at least one national ranking.
According to the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission, our fair state has the highest crime rate in the nation, capping off a surge that began in 2000. How does that tie into us here at ASU?
ASU has a population of around 60,000. There are entire cities that large that have an extensive police force to handle crime. We have just over 100 uniformed cops.
Last Tuesday, ASU held a town hall meeting to address safety concerns on campus. The highlight was Myles Lynk's report on the investigation he led in the wake of the Loren Wade shooting.
"One of things that is striking about ASU is the wealth of resources to address concerns with safety," Lynk said. "It is incumbent upon us to use them."
Lynk is absolutely right. One of the things that our rapidly increasing tuition entitles us to is safety.
It is necessary that we use resources we pay for, like the town hall meetings -- where top officials from ASU descend from their ivory towers to handle our concerns -- if for no other reason but to ensure that Mom and Dad are getting the most for their money.
At its most crowded peak, the nine panel members and half a dozen DPS officers addressed a whopping 37 members of the ASU community. At the beginning of the meeting, Vice President of University Administration and General Counsel Paul Ward joked that attendees should move to the front of cavernous Armstrong Hall so that the microphones could be turned off.
After the meeting, Ward said he was concerned that so few people turned out.
"A lot of times, you go about life thinking that nothing bad will happen," he said. "It's human nature. But you have to prepare in case something does happen."
Looking at the ASU community, the most dangerous thing that we face is rampant apathy. I am one in 60,000 -- those seem to be the odds that I as a student will be victim of a crime at ASU. So why bother?
Lynk said that one of the things that his commission investigated in regard to safety was how familiar the ASU community was with the code of conduct.
Most of the 2,414 respondents indicated that they were less than familiar with the code. It may seem obvious that behavior like shooting a fellow student in a nightclub parking lot goes against the code. What might not be obvious is that the code addresses negative behaviors that might lead up to a shooting.
This is where a strong ASU community comes in. If we are proactive people that care about bettering our environment, we will look for areas of concern, and address them. When our administration asks us for our input, we give it.
On the other hand, one in 60,000 ain't so bad.
Arthur Martori is a journalism senior. Send (yawn...) concerns to arthur.martori@asu.edu.
