The campus security alerts at UMiami were never this interesting:
On Saturday, February 7 at approximately 2:30 a.m., a 22-year-old male who is not affiliated with the University of Minnesota was the victim of an armed robbery and assault on the West Bank Plaza near Anderson Hall.
The victim was walking across the West Bank Plaza when he was approached by a group of four to six males. The group assaulted the victim, striking him with a metal pipe and kicking and punching him. During the assault, the suspects took the victim’s watch and car keys.
The victim eventually fled to safety, but did sustain injuries that required medical treatment.
That’s why I don’t feel bad crossing the street.
There’s generally more crime at UMinnesota than UMiami. There are several reasons for this: UMinnesota is 5 times bigger than UMiami (50,000+ students vs. 10,000).
The main UMN campus is and less than a mile from downtown Minneapolis and surrounded by low income and student housing, whereas UMiami is tucked away in an affluent suburb 8 miles from downtown Miami.
UMiami also has vastly better security (for humans at least). The campus is littered with cameras, rent-a-cops, and real cops. The campus is also so flood-lit that it resembles a sound stage at night.
A core difference is the nature of the schools: Miami is private, Minnesota is public. At UMiami, campus security booted those who obviously didn’t fit in and issued trespass warnings as if they were parking tickets. Although there was that random homeless lady who lived in the bushes near Miami’s business school…
UMN definitely doesn’t have the big boarding school feel of UMiami.
Homeless people are omnipresent, especially in the libraries. There are also characters: an old guy with a ponytail (and beret!) sings for tips outside of the Wilson library. Gypsies play the violin on the Washington Avenue bridge. There’s also fundamentalist preacher who stands near the student union and tells passersby exactly why, how, and when they are going to hell.
Yes, I’m serious.
The law school is its own little world in the chaos that is UMinnesota. I think the doors of the building lock at 7pm and there’s usually a student security-assistant within earshot.
Just don’t expect me to hang around outside of the law school in the middle of the night any time soon…
