The eastern border of the West University Neighborhood is the western border for the University. Many residents in the area are students of the University, making the West University Neighborhood an essential part of the University experience, whether it adds or subtracts is up for debate.
“It’s a confluence of different types of people,” said Paul Shang, assistant vice president and dean of students.@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Paul+Shang@@. “There are a lot of college-aged students — there’s no doubt about it — but there are also a lot of high school-aged people, and there are also a lot of people who are clearly not college-aged.”
Karen Hyatt, the assistant director of government and community relations, as well as a liaison to the University’s surrounding neighborhood associations@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Karen+Hyatt@@, pointed out that the University does attempt to reduce the growing crime trends in the area.
But just last Saturday, a female student reported she was sexually assaulted multiple times after leaving a party near Hilyard Street and 16th Avenue. Google Maps puts the area of this incident roughly one-tenth of a mile away from the campus borders.
“We do a community welcome at the beginning of the year, and we try to educate students on how they can keep themselves safe,” Hyatt said, whose department was formed in the past five years in order to create positive relationships between the neighborhood and the University. “There are a lot of things that we try to do in order to make a neighborhood connection with the University.”
Hyatt brings up a couple of programs that have been enacted over the past couple of years: a community clean up project; walking door to door with safety information; sending out letters of warning whenever a problem has been reported to their “Good Neighbor” program and so on. Feb. 22 marks the third-annual Off-Campus Housing Fair @@http://uodos.uoregon.edu/SupportandEducation/OffCampusLiving/OffCampusHousingFair/tabid/229/Default.aspx@@— an event that brings together property managers, landlords and community services to help students with their off campus living situations. Shang said that the University has even sent people to a conference in Boulder, Colo., to learn how other institutions deal with off-campus livability issues.
But other than the basic slap on the wrist and handing out educational pamphlets, the University seems to have its hands tied, as the neighborhood is a direct reflection of student off-campus housing. Although it has such a large impact on the safety of its students, the University cannot enforce necessary safety in the area that is 84 percent college-aged residents — approximately 5,500 people@@http://www.walkscore.com/OR/Eugene/West_University times .84@@.
“I think every neighborhood reflects (the University) in a different way,” Hyatt said. “Students are looking for different situations on where they want to live — it’s just one of many different types of living experiences and environments we have around here.”
Shang is quick to correct those who believe the problem with the neighborhood is students.
“It’s a perfect storm,” he said. “You can go out there at night and see. Many people are quick to blame students because they are populating the area, but remember, people come from all over to have a good time.”
And, although the University cannot act directly on the crime, Shang hopes that someone will understand the severity of the situation and act for them. He says that students have told him about Eugene Police Department catching and releasing people on weekend nights because they have limited jail space. But with the opening of the Springfield Municipal Jail in 2010@@http://www.ci.springfield.or.us/police/jail.html@@, he hopes that things will turn around and more people will be caught.
“I think that a couple of things need to happen,” Shang said. “I think the people and the neighborhood need to take more responsibility, I think we here at the University need to do more to educate students about off-campus housing and then, on top of that, there needs to be stepped up enforcement.”