Dear Panther Community,
I want to send a message to update you on safety incidents over the past few weeks and continue to encourage you to be safe and careful as we approach the final weeks of the spring semester. When asked what keeps me up at night, my first response is always the safety of our students in our urban setting. Georgia State’s downtown location provides our students with amazing access to the city and is one of our greatest assets as an institution. It can also present challenges as we share our streets and spaces.
In recent weeks, our Georgia State University Police Department has responded to several incidents where large crowds have gathered near the university’s housing corridor along Piedmont Avenue on our Atlanta Campus. In each of these cases, police and security officers have shut down large parties at nearby off-campus apartment complexes and hundreds of individuals, both students and non-students, have been gathering in the street. Some of the behavior has been unruly and some of it has been unlawful. After the first set of incidents that occurred a week ago, our university leadership acted proactively. We have had several meetings to put steps in action. As President, I personally performed late night security walks with our Chief Operating Officer and members of the Georgia State University Police Department. On Friday, we sent several video and text messages to the community encouraging safety and proper social etiquette for upcoming weekends while increasing officer patrols in the area. Despite enhanced police presence this weekend, a driver fired shots on Saturday night after individuals jumped on and damaged his vehicle. There were two shooting incidents Sunday evening in the area, where two non-GSU individuals sustained non-life-threatening injuries after being struck by gunfire. This chaotic environment is unacceptable.
We have doubled our efforts to stem these unfavorable activities. Moving forward, Georgia State University, working closely with the City of Atlanta, will further increase its police presence in the area, limit guest access in on-campus university housing and will work even more closely with off-campus property owners to stop these events. GSUPD, in conjunction with Georgia State Patrol and the Atlanta Police Department, is reviewing video surveillance footage and social media posts to identify those who were involved in any unlawful behavior and will aggressively prosecute all involved who have been identified as committing any criminal acts. We are also sharing this surveillance with our Office of the Dean of Students to identify any Student Code of Conduct violations. Whether on or off campus, students can be held accountable through Student Conduct for behavior that put themselves or the GSU community at risk.
Please view my safety video below and the messages from our Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Police. If you have been a victim of crime on or off campus, contact the GSU Office of Victim Assistance. We will continue to make every effort to make the campus a safe place for all.
Best regards,
