Crime is a timeless issue, but in the days of gun violence and recent mass shootings, how does the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay look in terms of safety? According to students and the chief of the University Police, very safe.
In February, a mass shooting at Michigan State University shook the community and resulted in the deaths of three students and landed five others in the hospital. The story made national headlines, garnering attention from colleges across the country. UWGB sent out a mass email to students explaining what to do in the event of a mass shooting: run, hide, or fight. The email also urged students to sign up for GB Alert, which is the university’s emergency notification system. Reflecting on the tragic event, Chief of Police Tony Decker said University Police are always working to improve their strategies. “We train on this regularly with all police agencies in Brown County so that we can present a unified response and minimize the casualties if an incident were to occur,” Decker said.
Decker has worked at UWGB as an officer since September 2011. “If you look at the serious criminal acts that have occurred on campus in the last several years, most are incidental transient crimes that do not have direct ties to our campus,” he said. UWGB posts all crime reports here dating back to January 2020. According to Decker, the most common instances of a crime involving students are minor. “Disturbances related to interpersonal conflict or noise and the unlawful use of alcohol and marijuana are some of our more common offenses,” Decker said.
Students may recall an incident that took place on campus in September 2021, involving a burned body being found on the campus trails. This incident was not related to campus, and none of the individuals involved were associated with UWGB. According to WFRV, Pedro Santiago-Marquez, the man accused of killing and burning the victim, has been found guilty of both charges and will have a sentencing hearing in May. According to a witness, the murder itself was related to a cocaine deal and a debt owed to the victim.
A more recent event involved the arrest of 18-year-old student Joel Robinson-Sellers for carrying a concealed weapon and possession of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). According to the criminal report, on February 7th, 2023, another student in James Temp Hall called in a complaint after Robinson-Sellers was heard pounding on doors and slurring his words. University Police found various substances and a firearm in Robinson-Sellers’s possession, and the student was arrested that night. According to the report, he faces a $10,000 fine and or jail time of up to nine months.
Freshman Lila Munger lives next to James Temp Hall on Shaeffer Ct. and shared her experience during Robinson-Seller’s arrest. “I was a little scared knowing something like that happened while I was walking into/around my dorm, especially since I live right next to Temp. I was mostly confused, though, since there were a lot of rumors floating around, and I wasn’t sure what exactly happened,” she said. Aside from that incident, Munger says she’s never felt unsafe while on campus.
Resident Mentor Lauren Noriega reflected on the incident, saying she did not feel unsafe that night but was concerned for her friend, who was present during the events. “They were shaken up after the incident,” she said. Noriega is an RM in a different building on campus and says that she has never felt unsafe when dealing with instances involving residents. “When having to approach a situation, RM’s go with other RM’s, so you are never dealing with a situation by yourself,” she said. For nearly all crime instances, RMs call University Police to come to help them with the situation.
Decker says the worst instance he has dealt with on campus was a homicide in 2015 that took place at Lambeau Cottage. According to Decker, the incident involved individuals who were not associated with the campus and was related to a drug deal.
These few incidents seem to stand out because they are rare occurrences on a relatively safe campus. Both Munger and Noriega agree that UWGB is a safe campus. “I do consider Green Bay to be a safe school. Since it is kind of separated from downtown Green Bay and surrounded by the arboretum, we don’t see a ton of unwanted community members,” Noriega said. “I do feel UWGB is very safe. I walk back to my dorm late at night and almost never feel as if I am being watched or followed,” Munger said.
While UWGB may be considered a safe campus located away from the busy downtown area, students may note a lack of the Blue Light Phone on campus. Blue Light Phones are seemingly becoming a college campus staple that ensures the help of University Police at the press of a button, but UWGB has taken down all of its outside campus phones. While this may seem alarming, the reasoning behind their removal is logical. “The ones that were posted outdoors were difficult and costly to maintain, but most importantly, they were outdated technology and not used. Since I have worked here, we have NEVER had an emergency phone used to report a true emergency,” Decker said. The chief of police explained that with cell phones at nearly every student’s disposal, the emergency phones became less crucial for campus safety, and instead of undergoing costly repairs, the phones were taken out.
Munger didn’t know about the campus phones or their removal. Noriega said she has conflicting thoughts on the subject. “When I came to college in 2019, there were only about two emergency phones that I passed that were working, and the others were broken. This makes me think that they were not used a lot or at all,” she said.
One resource available to students is the Safe Walk Program, where any student who feels unsafe walking alone on campus can call the 920-465-2300 number to have a Community Service Officer escort them. CSOs are fellow students on campus. UWGB senior Zea Miller, who has used the program before, says it’s a great resource for students who are feeling uneasy about walking alone on campus. “My first time using it, I was a little apprehensive because I had no idea what the process was. But it’s really just as easy as calling the number and walking to a location with another student,” Miller said. Zea said that while she feels the UWGB campus is safer than others, she has had experiences when she felt unsafe. “I’ve had three instances on campus where either I have been followed or a group I am in has been followed by a man. Needless to say, it’s pretty scary as a woman on a college campus,” she said.
CSOs primarily provide help to students having issues with housing. The main services they provide are Safe Walks, facility-focused security rounds, assisting with lockouts and door fixes, and observing and reporting incidents to University Police. To see the full scope of a CSO’s responsibilities, click here.
“The safety of students is shared by the University as a whole, not isolated within University Police. It’s truly a team effort,” Decker said. In addition to the University Police, students at UWGB have other resources to help them feel safe on campus. One of them being the Green Bay Area Crime Stoppers. Though this is not a resource that is specific to campus, on the University Police website, underneath “Crime Prevention,” students can click to learn more about Crime Stoppers. Working in collaboration with community members, the police, and the media, Crime Stoppers accepts anonymous tips about the safety of the area. The phone calls are not recorded, and rewards are sometimes offered for valuable information. Tips can be submitted on the Crime Stoppers website or through the smartphone app called P3 Tips.
Decker advises students to report any crimes they see on campus to University Police. If incidents are suspected to be motivated by bias or hate, students can report them on MESA’s website. Reporting bias incidents to the office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs helps create a record of incidents in hopes of responding to and preventing similar future events. Once a student has reported a bias incident, they will have the opportunity to discuss it with a member of the Bias Incident Response Team. If the incident rises to the level of a crime or students feel unsafe, they should also report it to UWGB Police or the local police agency. If students find themselves in an unsafe position, there are a number of resources available to help them ranging from University Police, Housing, and Residential Education to the Wellness center, depending on their needs. “If the person simply doesn’t know who to contact, contact University Police. Even if we are not the ones to ultimately provide assistance, we are very good at knowing where to send students based on their needs,” he said.
University Police are a valuable resource to students who are available 24/7 on call and have office hours Monday – Friday, 7:45 am to 4:30 pm, in the Instructional Services building on campus. The department consists of 10 police officers and 3 part-time patrol officers. For non-emergencies, students can call 920-465-2558 or email Police@uwgb.edu. In the event that it isn’t an emergency, but an officer is still needed, students can call 920-465-2300. For emergencies, students should call 911. The University Police’s website offers safety tips to students concerning personal safety, theft, auto accidents, ID theft, and more. Other pages on their website have information on how to reduce the risk of sexual assault and resources for survivors, as well as information on stalking. Information about emergency proceedings can be found here. GB Alert is another resource available to students that notifies them via text of any campus emergencies. Students can sign up for GB Alert here.
