Ohio State safety task force gives recommendations after shooting
The Ohio State safety task force formed after the October shooting death of a student has proposed more than a dozen new safety and security recommendations, including expanding surveillance camera coverage offcampus, increasing university police staffing and evaluating lighting in offcampus neighborhoods.
The task force also recommended a comprehensive educational campaign about the university’s safety resources and working with community organizations to advance safety in the University District neighborhood.
The task force co-chairs provided an update on their work to a committee of Ohio State trustees Wednesday afternoon, just a month after President Kristina M. Johnson announced the task force. The group anticipates implementing at least some of the recommendations as early as next month.
The task force was formed in the wake of the October killing of Ohio State student Chase Meola. The 23year-old New Jersey native was a fifthyear marketing major.
Police said Meola was shot and killed in the parking area of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house around 2 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 11, when Kinte Mitchell Jr. and others showed up at a party in the area and an altercation broke out. Mitchell, 18, was identified as the shooter and later charged with murder in Meola’s death.
Melissa Shivers, vice president of student life and one of the task force’s co-chairs, called Meola’s death “tragic, violent and senseless.”
The full board of trustees was also expected to vote Thursday afternoon on a proposal to award Meola a posthumous degree.
Shivers and fellow co-chair Jay Kasey, senior vice president of administration and planning, said the task force’s recommendations follow three themes: safety awareness and education; enhanced security measures; and outreach and engagement efforts.
A number of the recommendations focus on the off-campus neighborhoods where many Ohio State students live. The University District surrounding Ohio State’s campus includes about 700 landlords, 650 businesses, and about 18,000 students, Kasey said.
The task force called for adding surveillance camera coverage in off-campus neighborhoods, in coordination with property owners, Columbus police and others. These cameras would be installed by the university, and could be monitored from the city’s surveillance system or the university’s dispatch and monitoring center, Kasey said.
Also recommended is a university lighting survey of the public streets and alleys in the University District “to assess security concerns and determine which areas need upgrades,” Kasey said.
While Ohio State’s police division currently has one officer dedicated to joint patrol with a Columbus police officer in the University District, the task force recommended increasing that staffing to allow for joint patrolling 24 hours a day.
“This is really a big deal,” Kasey said. “We currently have one officer who rides in the evening with CPD, and our goal is to have one of our officers on every shift riding with a CPD officer.”
The task force also recommended launching a safety class geared toward off-campus community members in partnership with Ohio State and Columbus police that would focus on crime safety, self-defense and risk reduction
The group has provided their draft recommendations to president Johnson, and will next work to determine implementation dates and costs associated with the recommendations, Kasey said.
“If this semester and really, the entire year, has illuminated anything, it is the importance of health and safety,” Shivers said. “And the range of what this truly encompasses is boundless.”
Additional task force recommendations include:
h Expand Ohio State’s student life community ambassador program.
h Increase access and attendance in off-campus living workshops that cover the housing search, living in a rental property, off-campus fire and personal safety, and home security
h Enhance existing cultural diversity and implicit bias training currently in place for OSUPD
h Extend the hours and promotion of the Lyft Ride Smart at Ohio State program.
h Reintroduce the Community Crime Patrol to provide communitybased crime prevention in the University District.
h Conduct a campus-wide safety survey for students.
h Develop and strengthen Ohio State partnerships with grassroots and community organizations and add resources to the University District organization to officer social service outreach jsmola@dispatch.com @jennsmola