UT-Austin President Vows To Enhance Campus Security

AUSTIN, TX — University of Texas at Austin officials plan to implement a number of security-enhancing measures on the West Campus area of the city following a string of criminal incidents.

UT-Austin President Gregory L. Fenves pledged over the weekend to secure additional funding for further safeguards in the wake of the incidents. "After recent crimes in Austin, I am working with Regents Chairman @KevinEltife on more funds to hire police, expand patrols and upgrade security-related technology in West Campus," Fenves wrote Sunday afternoon on Twitter. "We must stay focused on keeping the UT community safe."

In response to the president's pledge, campus Police Chief David Carter tweeted that his department would move swiftly to put those measures into place: "UT Austin police will be moving forward quickly to implement President @gregfenves's plan to expand our occasional West Campus patrols," Carter wrote. "We also will acquire security technology that will enhance off-campus student safety! More info soon."

The announcement comes on the heels of a recent announcement by Gov. Greg Abbott detailing his plans to dispatch additional Texas Department of Public Safety patrols to further secure the campus. Abbott has spotlighted the issue, linking crimes committed by people perceived to be homeless with loosened rules — passed last summer by the Austin City Council — governing those people's activities.

In sweeping reforms aimed at decriminalizing homelessness, the council rescinded bans on transient people resting on public sidewalks, as long as they did not obstruct pedestrians. Council members also lifted bans on pitching tents on areas where that was previously banned. The latter effort was later reined in when a large number of tents — many donated by well-meaning residents — starting popping up across the landscape, creating eyesores in the central business district and other locales where they previously weren't seen.

The Department of Public Safety's presence already is seen not far from campus at the governor's mansion at 1010 Colorado St. — just over a mile from campus — where the agency's parked cars are ubiquitous around the structure as officers protect the building. Abbott's step would dispatch more such agents a mile north to the area around campus.

The latest university pledge to beef up campus security co— mes on the heels of various incidents that have occurred on campus or at student housing located off-campus. While Abbott has sought to attribute the crime wave to people experiencing homelessness, many of the incidents are apart from that issue — ranging from reports of sexual assault to bank robberies at financial institutions across from campus to burglaries at off-campus housing.

The most recent crime reported by campus police on Sunday just before 7:05 p.m. after a person not affiliated with UT-Austin described being punched before a cell phone was stolen at Sid Richardson Hall. Police said the suspect has been identified, but gave no indication the perpetrator is homeless.

An October 2019 incident involving a student was found to have been rooted in a drug deal gone bad. After claiming to have been robbed at gunpoint, a UT-Austin student complaining to police later became uncooperative with the investigation — leading police to conclude the incident was rooted in a drug deal and the firearm purportedly used likely a fabrication.

In downtown Austin last week, a knifing attack that left five injured — including a pair of UT-Austin students — also has heightened the alarm over student safety. The woman arrested in that incident was described by police as being transient.

Patch has reported on some of the recent incidents that were heightening concern on campus, the majority of which were not believed to have involved homeless people:

• 2 Recent Stabbing Victims Are UT-Austin Students: Police
• UT-Austin Police Investigate Reported Sexual Assault
• 2nd Sexual Assault At UT-Austin In 2 Weeks: Police
• UT-Austin Police Seek Suspect In Knife Attack Near Campus
• UT-Austin Student Reportedly Mugged By Transient
• UT-Austin Student Robbed After Being Hit With Gun
• 'Armed Robbery' Of UT-Austin Student Leads To Arrest
• Robbery At Off-Campus UT-Austin Housing Site Reported
• UT-Austin Students Beaten, Robbed At Off-Campus Apartment
• Police Respond To Bank Robbery Near UT-Austin Campus
• Police Seek Suspect In Robbery Near UT-Austin

Fenves' latest pledge is reminiscent of a similar vow he made after freshman student Haruka Weiser, 18, was killed by a transient man along a darkened portion of the campus in April 2016. The student's body was found along a poorly lighted portion of Waller Creek that runs through campus, prompting university officials to secure an audit on security measures needed to better secure the sprawling campus, which encompasses more than 400 acres and some 165 buildings.

Among the security measures recommended after the 2016 murder on campus were:

• Additional public safety staffing is required, including more University of Texas Police Department officers and security guards who can assist with campus patrols.
• Upgrading is needed of video surveillance systems.
• Better lighting is needed in many areas, and excessive vegetation and overgrowth should be cleared to increase visibility.
• Policies should be developed to reduce the presence of transients on the campus.
• Improved controls should be introduced to limit access to campus buildings at night by people who are not members of the UT community.

Emerging as priority issue was enhanced lighting along Waller Creek, long an area of concern among students needing to travel alongside the waterway to reach a campus destination. A ballet student, Weiser was on her way back home after completing a night class when she was attacked along the darkened path.

But little light was subsequently shed on the exact security measures eventually taken by the university to enhance students' safety. The university acknowledged that many of the steps taken were shrouded in secrecy as officials cited the security-sensitive aspects of the measures. At the time, university officials explained the need for the measures to be shrouded in relative secrecy:

"The full DPS review is classified as 'Law Enforcement Sensitive,'" university officials wrote in 2016. "It describes operations related to security and assessment methods that cannot be released. Media and members of the public may file a Freedom of Information request, and the university will work expeditiously with the University of Texas System and Office of the Attorney General to determine whether any information from the full report can be made public."

Previous coverage:

• UT-Austin Officials Receive Security Audit Toward Enhancing Campus Safety
• Dangers of Waller Creek Where University of Texas-Austin Student Was Killed Long Known
• University Of Texas-Austin Homicide Victim Was Sexually Abused, Strangled: Police
• UT Austin Stages Vigil Honoring Slain Student Killed On Campus One Year Ago

In light of the newest effort to enhance campus security, Patch reached out to a university spokesman to determine whether the full array of security recommendations had been implemented after the student's death. In a preliminary response, university spokesman J.B. Bird noted the area of latest concern is not campus property.

"Just to be clear, the area commonly referred to as 'West Campus' is not on UT Austin’s campus," Bird wrote in a response to the Patch request for information. "It is the City of Austin neighborhood to the immediate west of the actual campus. The City of Austin has jurisdiction over this area. UT has worked cooperatively with APD [Austin Police Department] to patrol the area and we are now bolstering those efforts."

As for measures implemented after the death of the student in 2016, Bird wrote: "In answer to your basic question, yes, those recommendations were implemented." Bird said he would ask campus safety personnel to gather and provide that information.

Patch will provide updates when those details are received.