Do you feel safe on campus after the spate of hate crimes at UCSC?

‘Being a minority on this campus is very hard – you have to be careful at all times’

After Donald J. Trump was named president elect, hate crimes in America have increased by 6 percent(according to the New York Times). Even on a campus as liberal as UCSC, hate crimes are still an issue.

On Friday Nov. 11, a female student was walking on Meyer Road when three men in a white Ford yelled homophobic slurs at her at 11:30 PM. One of the men threw a rock at her, striking her in the head. She suffered minor injuries after fleeing the scene.

Surveillance videos show three men walking through Quarry Plaza at the time of the incident. One was wearing a hat. All three suspects were described to be in their early 20s.

The next day around 10 PM, two female students in the Porter Meadow were approached by three men. The women were able to safely exit the area and fled to their dorm. Even in their own dorm room, they weren’t safe – the three men entered the Porter B residence hall and wrote “obscene words” on one of the female students’ white board, according to an email from the UCSC police chief Nader Oweis.

When students were asked if they felt safe on campus, most of the replies were “no.”

Diana Bracamontes, 18, Anthropology

“I do not feel safe.Walking by myself is very scary, since I was followed once by a male when I was walking home from the dining hall all the way back to Kresge. I didn’t walk straight to my apartment, but I called my roommates and they came out and waited with me by the laundry room until he was gone.”

Francesca Loayza, 20, Biology

“Me and my friends talked about this, we have this system that figures out rides for us because we feel uncomfortable walking home at night. I always felt uncomfortable, but now I just don’t want to walk alone at all at night.”

Denise Dovali, 22, Business Economics

“I think that everyone is just angry – they’re either angry at people who voted for the president or those who didn’t. Everyone is just angry and it comes out in different ways. They usually target the people who seem ‘weak’ such as minorities and women. What happened is very scary and if it happened to me I would just cry. I thought we had a very liberal campus, but apparently it’s not as liberal as I thought it was. I just want to know who are these people and why are they doing this.”

Flower Evans, 18, Psychology

“I never felt particularly safe on campus, but now, after hearing these attacks that are happening scares me, since I have a lot of classes that are at night. It terrifies me.”

Mayowa Borisade, 18, Computer Engineering

“Being a minority on this campus is very hard, because you have to be careful of where you are at all times, especially at night. If you’re a girl, you have to take extra precautions, like having pepper spray and walking in large groups. As a minority, especially at night, I walk with my homies to stay extra safe. I just reduce the time I walk at night to stay safe.”

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