Berkeley’s lack of safety is starting to matter in college rankings
The New York Times published on November 9, 2023, an article in which readers can discover which US colleges rank highest on the factors which matter most to them. You can select among several factors, including academic profile, party scene, diversity, athletics, and more.
You can try it here.
Here’s what you get if you’re looking for a public university in California with a strong academic profile, a diverse student body, and a comparatively low sticker price:
UC Berkeley lands at #4 in the list. Now let’s add one more factor: campus safety.
Any guess what happens to UC Berkeley’s ranking?
That’s right— UC Berkeley comes in dead last once you say you want a safe campus.
This is unfortunately not surprising, given that UC Berkeley was recently identified as the 3rd most dangerous campus in America by Degree Choices:
Little of this will come as a surprise to Cal students and their families. We’ve had to contend with the risk of violent crime against students for too long. And now we’re doing something about it.
Our Plan
Cal parents are prepared to lead the way and bring in private security to protect our students. We are not content to simply wait for the university to eventually hire the number of police officers needed to keep our Bears safe.
We are going to fund a pilot program to bring in private security officers. (Update: SafeBears’ private security pilot took place March 6 - 23, 2024! Read all about it here.)
We want to deploy private security officers around residence halls and at key areas around campus where students are known to congregate and walk through. We will work closely to determine the exact number of agents and hours of operation during this two week period (finals week and the study week which precedes it).
We have already met with representatives from Block by Block and Streetplus, two of the most respected vendors offering private security services to universities, and they are keen to develop a successful pilot with us. Whichever vendor we select will ensure their agents are tracking their work each day — how many students they assisted, how many dangerous situations they de-escalated, how many times they called UCPD or Berkeley PD for assistance, and so on. We will then present these data to the university and call upon them to fund a private security program themselves, and we will also share news of our pilot with the media and get as much coverage of it as possible.
But it isn’t going to be cheap. Preliminary estimates are coming in around $30,000 for a 10- to 14-day pilot program, depending on the exact number of agents and hours we select.
That’s where we need your help.
We need your help
This program will only happen if SafeBears members like you support it with your donations. Will you help? I know it’s a big ask, but launching this private security pilot is our best chance at forcing the university to finally get serious about making students safe at Cal. It will show that nothing is more important than the safety of our Bears.
Cal has the money. Chancellor Christ recently announced that her Fiat Lux campaign raised over $1 billion more than expected. It’s time the university realized that it needs to use some of those funds to make students safe, and this is how we’re doing it.
Your donation is 100% tax deductible
(Update: SafeBears raised over $40,000, allowing us to run our private security pilot March 6 - 23, 2024! Read all about it here.)
Can we count on your support? 🫶🏾
Please note: in the event UC Berkeley immediately provides more trained security personnel to keep students safe, SafeBears will repurpose funds collected through this campaign to other safety initiatives as outlined on the SafeBears homepage.
SafeBears is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (EIN: 92-3541937).
Together, we will make UC Berkeley safer for our students 💛