I have to say that as a student of Northeastern and a member of the Mission Hill Community that I am extremely upset at the targets of Northeastern Police Department’s newest initiative. Even though I see the articles about all of the alcohol that was confiscated in the past two weeks and how many students were caught and now are going to get in trouble, I still do not feel that Northeastern is deploying its Police Force in the proper way. There have been numerous shootings on our campus and in the surrounding communities, along with other violent crimes and Northeastern seems more worried about the alcohol on campus.

Now do not get me wrong, alcohol is a problem on campus, but no more than on any other campus. If college kids want to drink, they are going to find a way to do it. If college kids do not want to get shot, well that seems harder to control for yourself. My friend who is 22 was walking down the street last week from the liquor store to his apartment on Westland Avenue and he was stopped three times by Northeastern Police and ID’ed. Three times seems ridiculous to me, especially because this student does not look underage. If they have enough cops to stop my friend three times, then how about putting some of those cops to a good use and trying to deter/stop some of these shootings and violent crimes. I do not see how alcohol is more of a danger than everything else that has been going on in and around campus.

Northeastern Public Safety needs to take a look at the program that they are running and realize that these events keep getting closer and closer to the heart of campus. Imagine telling a parent that there was a shooting IN the student center, how would an incoming freshman’s parents feel about that. Northeastern needs to stop worrying about looking good to the community in regards to alcohol, but it needs to keep its students safe. There are more and more instances of juveniles attacking or harassing students and even faculty in the buildings on campus, but yet Northeastern still deploys more police units to combat alcohol on campus. This new initiative that uses more cops to find alcohol does not seem to be stopping students from getting drunk, but I have noticed that the violence around campus has increased. Coincidence???

Ryan Luks Junior – Class of 2007 Business Administration and Criminal Justice