Shooting leaves University Tower residents unfazed

By Alexander Dworkowitz

LIZ OLINER/YH University Towers residents are confident that last weekıs shooting outside their building was a one-time occurence.

But the case is not as simple as it seems. Yanagisawa was shot at 11:30 p.m. right outside of his office in University Towers. Not only do many Yalies reside in the University Towers building, but students traveling between the Medical School and Yale's central campus usually walk on York Street and pass the site of the shooting. Thus, the violent incident has brought up the age-old question: how safe are Yale and New Haven?

"When you are talking about crime in city universities, I think the statistics are about the same," Yale Assistant Police Chief James Perrotti said. "All universities experience the same things."

Perrotti's claims are backed up by the data. According to the FBI, from 1990 to 1996 the number of violent crimes occurring at Yale has fluctuated between 10 and 15 a year, a relatively low number for Yale's population of 11,000 students. Most of these crimes are robberies or assaults--not murders.

According to the Martha Highsmith, associate secretary to the University, Yale's numbers fare well when compared to other universities. Highsmith, who has overseen police and security for the past three years, said, "The number of crimes against persons is significantly lower at Yale that at other Ivies, [especially] Harvard, Penn, and Columbia." Perrotti added, "Yale does a tremendous amount of things for security beyond the police department."

Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead, BR '68, GRD '72, agrees. "The University takes extraordinary concerns in questions of security and safety, which have increased markedly over the last 10 years." He cited "dramatic" improvements in campus lighting and the gate system, the expansion of Yale's police force, and an expansion in the area patrolled by police.

The shooting of Yanagisawa, however, did not occur on Yale property. Highsmith explained that the University has made an effort to work with the city to improve the safety situation in off-campus areas including York Street. "This particular location is not under the University's control; it's not our building," Highsmith said. "We have worked with the city in the past to improve safety on the route that medical students and faculty use. We have doubled wattage of street lights, installed a blue phone, made York Street one of the main corridors of police. We added to [Yale's] patrol for the Medical School police bike units." Highsmith added that she plans to discuss additional safety measures with Dr. David Kessler, the dean of the Medical School.

"[The shooting is] definitely a cause for concern, but it's definitely an isolated incident," Edward Parsons, GRD '02, said. Parsons has lived in University Towers for two years. Ralph Proto, the property manager of Crown Towers, across the street from University Towers, concurred with Parsons. "This random act that occurred is obviously not common," he said. "With the exception of this, the occasional car is broken into."

There is a general consensus among Yale students and administrators that the shooting was a rarity. "This is an extremely distressing and regrettable event that nonetheless strikes me as extremely anomalous," Brodhead said. "None of us will ever be free from gratuitous and arbitrary events in the world."

"I don't think New Haven is any different than any other city," Lisa Vasquez, CC '98, said. Vasquez, who lives off-campus at the corner of Dwight and Elm Street, noted that she calls a minibus instead of walking home by herself late at night. In light of the shooting, Vasquez said that she "will take more precautions."

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