News Release

 
July 2005

Dear Parents:

Over the past few months, we have corresponded with you, primarily by e-mail, on security improvements under way at the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus.

Those of you who are parents of incoming freshmen may not be aware of the tragic death of one of our students last January. Senior Linda Trihn was slain by an assailant in an off-campus apartment. An individual known to the victim has been arrested and charged with the crime. The entire Johns Hopkins community grieves along with Linda's family and friends, but those of us responsible for the undergraduate experience felt particularly diminished by this senseless loss of so promising a life.

Although this incident was not the result of a breach of campus security, it did prompt us to review all aspects of campus safety and to accelerate a number of actions that had been under way.

Now that the academic year has ended, we thought it important to update you on these matters once again. This time we are doing so by mail, so that we are sure that the latest information is reaching even those parents for whom we do not have e-mail addresses.

Before that update, however, two quick points:

First, we would like to collect as many parents' e-mail addresses as possible so that we can contact our entire parent community quickly when the need arises. If you have never heard from us by e-mail or have recently changed electronic addresses and lost touch with us, we invite you to send an e-mail to studentlife@jhu.edu and include your name, your preferred e-mail address, your child's name and graduation year. Second, a Web version of this letter is available at www.jhu.edu/parents/. That version contains links to additional information on some of the points below.

As President Brody wrote you in January when he announced a new security action plan, "there is nothing we do at Johns Hopkins that is more important than ensuring the safety and security of our students." The full letter can be accessed at webapps.jhu.edu/jhuniverse/today/trinh9.cfm. Throughout the past six months, at President Brody's direction, we have focused on that priority as never before.

Much has been done already, and more is being accomplished even now, as I will outline in this letter. A group of key administrators, working under a mandate from the Committee on Homewood Safety and Security, is spending much of this summer drafting a comprehensive long-term security plan. By summer's end, that plan will be ready for review by the committee and, when approved, for submission to President Brody.

Among the elements to be included in that plan are proposals for continued implementation of the campus video surveillance system, for improving our security escort van service and for providing students with better information on security in private apartment buildings and other non- campus housing.

We also have been working on issues related to our residence hall access. We have reviewed policies to ensure that only residents, guests and authorized personnel may enter our residence halls. More broadly, we also will be examining and considering alternatives to our current policy of relatively open access to classrooms and other campus buildings.

We will brief you on the results of all these efforts in future communications.

Also this summer, a new executive director of campus safety and security has arrived at Homewood. Ed Skrodzki has joined the university after 22 years with the U.S. Secret Service, most recently as special agent in charge of the Baltimore field office. He succeeds Ron Mullen, who is retiring after 13 years of exceptional service to Johns Hopkins. To review the Gazette article on Director Skrodzki, please go to www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2005/23may05/23vets.html.

The other major effort this summer is the construction of gates and guardhouses at the Alumni Memorial Residences (AMRs). This project is the physical counterpart to the access policy, mentioned above, intended to improve security by ensuring that everyone who enters residence halls has properly identified themselves. Similar ID procedures will also be instituted for Wolman and McCoy Halls, but the necessary construction there will occur inside the main doors. At the AMRs, which have nearly two dozen exterior entrances, an indoor solution was not practical. You can see architect's drawings of the AMR project at webapps.jhu.edu/jhuniverse/today/secure05b.cfm.

It might be useful before I close to briefly review for you a few of the action steps that were taken on campus during the spring semester. Much more detail is available on the Web at webapps.jhu.edu/jhuniverse/today/security.cfm.

We engaged off-duty Baltimore police officers for night patrol duty in Charles Village, and initiated a security bike patrol in the off-campus area where most of our students live.

We installed and launched a 32-camera remote surveillance system, again focusing on residence halls and the Charles Street corridor where students often walk at night.

We worked with Baltimore City, our neighbors and our business partners, and improved area street lighting. We engaged a consultant to give us recommendations for better lighting in some darker areas on and around campus, and are implementing those recommendations.

We upgraded our network of "blue light" emergency telephones with new, more reliable hardware and new locations.

The Committee on Homewood Safety and Security was active throughout the semester, meeting frequently and providing the administration with good, constructive criticism and helpful comments on all these issues. Parents have been ably represented on the committee by Joanne Kraus (Parent '06), Randy Siller (Parent '08), Barbara Doty (Parent '99 and '06), and Lisa Rowen (Parent '09). Several of them remain at work on subgroups that are meeting during the summer, and all will back with us again when the new academic year begins in September. All of us at Homewood — students, faculty and administration — are grateful for their valuable contributions of time, energy and ideas.

With the help of the committee and its parent, student, faculty and staff members, we will keep safety and security issues foremost among our concerns and continue to act aggressively and decisively to address them.

A number of additional matters of interest are covered in other portions of this newsletter. I welcome your thoughts and reactions on any of these issues. I can be reached at ppburger@jhu.edu.

I wish you a most pleasant summer and look forward to having your sons and daughters back on campus this fall.

Sincerely,

Sincerely,
Paula Burger
Dean of Undergraduate Education