USC should teach students about the local community
A shooting in Downtown Los Angeles last Thursday and an officer-involved shooting on Skid Row has the concern for safety at USC at the front of many people’s minds.
Once again, it’s easy to see why the areas around USC are labeled “sketchy,” especially by those who pass down memories of the Watts Rebellion of the 1960s and the ’92 riots that surrounded the campus. These memories persist due to narrative held in place by the continual news coverage of crime in the University Park neighborhood. However, these fears are based on outdated information and racially charged viewpoints. Thus, the University should seek to educate its students about the true nature of South Los Angeles and encourage its students to interact with community members.
Students’ perceptions of the “dangerous” area around campus often stem from parents’ views. Many, especially those who live in and around Los Angeles, remember the race riots of 1992. Violent events did occur around campus, but a Los Angeles Times article from that year recounts that “the University of Southern California suffered nothing worse physically than one broken window at a parking kiosk.”
While the riots had little effect on admissions for the following year, the same article reports the University’s national image may have been damaged because “some national news shows broadcast incorrect reports of damage at USC.” Still, a student interviewed by the L.A. Times in 1992 remarked that “crime around here is never really that bad.” Perhaps, thanks in part to the news media’s exaggerated reports of damages to USC, older generations think of the area as crime-ridden and unsafe, when this was never the case.
In addition to this misrepresented violent past, current statistics also reinforce the relative safety of USC’s campus. In July 2017, The Daily Beast compiled a list of the 25 most crime-ridden college campuses, and USC did not even make the cut. While, universities like Yale and Tufts ranked 14th and 15th, respectively. The crime rate for the USC neighborhood over the past six months was 244.2, crimes per 10,000 people, slightly below the national average of 274.5 per 10,000 people. Living near USC’s campus is, if anything, marginally better than living in the United States as a whole.
These views of the USC area as an excessively crime-ridden neighborhood are not based in reality and are often predicated on assumptions made by affluent students and parents who are not familiar with the area. It’s easy for these privileged students to identify the Black and Latinx community members as a dangerous “other,” especially thanks to DPS crime reports. Many of these reports list the perpetrator as Black, male, late 20s, early 30s.
These reports, which are shared with students through text and email, present a negative view of the community and those matching that description. Students’ impressions of the community should derive from interpersonal interactions with community members, not just from a crime blotter. While LAPD and DPS should continue to report accurately on crime in the area, USC students should have another frame of reference for their community members.
To combat these harmful preconceptions of surrounding South L.A. neighborhoods, USC should require students to volunteer for at least one semester with the Joint Education Project. JEP and its associated programs ask for students to volunteer as tutors and classroom assistants for local students. These experiences range from helping students with science projects to editing college essays, forcing students to leave USC and work with students in their own classrooms.
These firsthand experiences lend students a deeper understanding of the lives of those that live nearby. Requiring students to spend at least one semester working for JEP will help build empathy and understanding and enrich the lives of students as well as their mentees. Many humanities classes and even STEM classes offer extra credit or other incentives for students to take part in these programs. If students were required to participate in them, it would benefit their academic pursuits and encourage community engagement.
Even at the time of the riots, students recognized the value of programs like JEP. Paul Pinner, a student who attended USC during the riots, told the L.A. Times that “USC student involvement in such efforts as tutoring neighborhood children may have paid off in goodwill during the disturbances. ‘If USC is smart, it will continue to develop that.’”
USC has continued to develop JEP and other similar programs. If USC wishes to enjoy this close relationship with the community it must require that students take part in service programs. Required participation in these programs will instill a greater understanding of the surrounding community and correct perceptions regarding safety around and off-campus.