According to the Annual Campus Safety Report released in September of this year, CMU’s campus is technically safer than it was in the previous three years.
All areas of reported offense statistics are down except for one–disciplinary referrals for liquor law violations. The number of occurrences for these have increased from 171 in 2023 to 319 in 2024.
Director of Campus Safety Alex Zappe took over in January of this year, after Pua Uta, who previously filled the role, retired. He said these trends are indicative of broader student behavior on campus.
“Generally, I appreciate the fact that students are very much, in most sense of the word, they’re chill, they’re behaved, they’re respectful,” Zappe said. “We have a good population of students.”
However, traffic safety, which is not reported on in the Campus Safety Report, has not seen the same downward trend. After student Dean Allen was struck by a car in the crosswalk near 12th St. and Mesa Avenue, two more student pedestrians were reportedly struck by cars near campus the week before Thanksgiving break. No details on the incidents have been released at this time.
This has prompted a response from ASG President Leilani Domingo to partner with the City of Grand Junction to improve safety for students crossing high volume roads like 12th to get to class. Some of her improvements include adding another light up crosswalk or Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFB) to 12th, decreasing the speed limit to 25 mph near campus and changing some of the infrastructure in the median to force right turns only out of places like the parking garage.
However, the RRFB crosswalks may not be the best solution. President John Marshall said that they give students a false sense of security, and these could actually decrease overall safety.
“We virtually never have people struck in areas where there’s not lighted signals. And what that tells you is, as a matter of human nature, we take on a false sense of security in those lighted cross signals, where we think our job is done when we press the button,” Marshall said in response to Allen’s hospitalization after being struck in the RRFB crosswalk.
In 2024, 13 out of the 16 crashes were on 12th St. or North Avenue. Data suggests a relationship between increased student enrollment between 2023 and now; In the fall of 2023, there were 8,995 students enrolled at CMU. One year later, there were 9,785 students enrolled. This year, there are 11,051 students enrolled.
Campus Safety employs 10-15 students through Student Services to act as Campus Safety Assistants (CSA). They were previously located in the Student Life office on the second floor of the University Center (UC). They have been temporarily moved to the hallway just outside of Student Life for an undetermined amount of time. Zappe said he doesn’t know why the move had to happen, and he doesn’t know where or when a more permanent space will become available.
“They are not a student club” Zappe said. “So it doesn’t really fit in Student Life, in that light.”
Zappe said that Campus Safety used to be located in what is now the Parking Services office outside of the UC. They got “bounced around” until the CSA’s found a space in Student Life but have been asked to move once again.
He does not expect this move or any future moves to a more permanent space to impact the services that CSAs provide.
“I was supportive of it because it just provides a space for our own stuff, to lock some of our supplies and things in a locked office that’s not open to, like, Student Life,” Zappe said.
The CSAs are mainly responsible for walking around campus at night and reporting potential issues to the local police. They also operate the school’s Safe Walk Program.
CSA Leonardo Parra also said that he doesn’t understand why the move had to happen. He said the employees who worked for MavRides enjoyed having the CSAs present during the late night shifts.
Another change this year was the addition of a mandated hazing training for all students involved in a student-run club or organization on campus. This was part of The Stop Campus Hazing Act (SCHA) that was signed into law at the end of 2024 by President Donald Trump. The next Campus Security Report for 2025, to be released in 2026, must include statistics regarding hazing.
The Campus Security Report is a federally mandated report that all higher education institutions must publish annually if they have any sort of safety or security present on campus. This must be made publically available along with the Daily Crime Log.
Due to a recent uptick in safety violations from the Grand Junction High School (GJHS) students, Zappe met with the school leadership.. He said students from GJHS regularly eat lunch on campus in the University Center and visit with friends that may have recently graduated and now attend CMU.
Zappe said this meeting was intended to “strengthen expectations about behavior” for the high school students after some incidents required police involvement.
“We’re trying to reiterate the expectation that this isn’t a free-for-all playground that you can do whatever you want,” Zappe said.
A campus-wide notice was given to the students of GJHS during morning announcements to improve their behavior while on CMU’s campus. The new dining hall is set to open in the fall and the school is hoping to attract even more GJHS students during their lunch break.
“I‘ve had a few people tell me they feel unsafe but in general, this is a welcoming, positive, chill environment,” Zappe said.
