Home is a relative idea. It is comprised of people and feelings and determined meaning. This can be a few places. For me personally, it’s my parent’s house, my best friend’s house and right here at Carolina.
I have put down roots here. Many of my happiest memories take place on this beautiful, historic campus. Yes, many of them are of tripping on bricks and cramming for exams, but those fail to outweigh the good.
I have written before about Carolina being my home and how the recent crime on campus has felt like a home invasion. We all woke to our Carolina Alerts and caught our breath with the thought “it could have been me.”
This past weekend was Parents Weekend, where the tuition-payers, merchandise-purchasers and donation-makers come by to see how things are going. Many of these parents came to the campus up in arms about the reports of increased crime around the university, concerned for the safety of their children after entrusting USC with their well-being.
Conveniently, it was also this weekend that the university graced us with the information that four of the reported crimes around campus didn’t actually happen.
This information was distributed in packets to parents on Friday and Saturday and wasn't sent out to students until Sunday.
I could continue in a scathingly sarcastic tone, but I don’t think that does my anger justice.
I understand that the USCPD has been investigating these events ad nauseum, and my gripe is not with them. I believe the USCPD has done nothing but bring comfort and support to the frightened students on campus since these events started, and even before then.
My gripe is with communication. The university needs to keep students in the know, even if the events and changes are inconclusive. I would much rather see a tweet from the university that says the investigation of an event is ongoing rather than be at the mercy of rumors and sensationalism.
Yes, students should not trust everything they hear on social media, but that's exactly where students found out about a confirmed armed robbery one block away from central campus when the university failed to send out a single alert, maybe that trust is not entirely misplaced.
I am appalled. I am appalled as a journalism student who is at this university to study the fair and true distribution of information to the public. I am appalled as a resident mentor who has a better chance of telling her residents what she heard on Twitter than from an alert distributed by the university. I am appalled as an individual who doesn’t want to live in fear over apparent "stories."
At this moment I do not trust information I get from my own home, or that they are giving me any information at all. I love Carolina with all my heart, but this is unacceptable.