Lincoln University group discusses campus safety

Do students at Lincoln University feel safe and secure on campus?

That was the question asked by the five members of the university’s 2016 Women’s Leadership Academy.

After reviewing the results of a campus-wide survey, the upper classmen presented their findings to the academy committee recently. Academy chairman Ruthi Sturdevant will deliver a formal report to university President Kevin Rome this spring.

The research project was the culmination of the academy, which brought together university faculty, community leaders and the nominated students weekly for six months.

Also, the students were paired with businesswomen in their anticipated career fields, who served as mentors.

“We’ve gotten advice from mentors who already have gone through the experiences we want to go through,” said Makayla James, a junior art education major.

The women also agreed the feedback from conducting mock job interviews was a valuable experience.

“We got our nerves out in a practice session,” said Shawna Scott, a junior journalism major. “We could find out what we did well and how to improve.”

The Women’s Leadership Academy was founded in 1995 by Dr. Rosemary Hearn, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Young women with more than 45 college credits are selected based on grade point average, high achievement and faculty recommendations.

The culminating event will be a banquet, featuring Nia Ray, director of the Missouri Department of Revenue.

This year’s five participants chose the safety survey as their community service project after listening to campus officials discuss the various concerns about security, most importantly a lack of awareness of available services, Sturdevant said.

For Anita Cole, a senior social science education major, she holds a vivid memory of sitting uncomfortably in a class where the professor and a student were in a heated argument, which could have escalated physically, she said.

James said she hopes their survey will prompt methods of increasing awareness on campus of what services are available.

Some of the major themes of their results included a social disconnect between commuter students and those who live on campus and the need for a more approachable presence with campus police.

The women felt their survey of 284 fellow students, faculty and staff suggested a feeling the campus was fairly secure, overall.

They were concerned in particular with the high percent of individuals who neither had someone they felt they could confide in nor knew where to report a crime or offense.

“We should aim for zero,” Scott said.