Erin Brumm's son enrolled at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in the fall of 2020, amid the pandemic. But she said it was also amid a ramp-up in crime for those who live near the sprawling urban campus.
"The crime on-campus is actually quite low," said Brumm. "The majority of the crime is in Dinkytown, Marcy-Holmes, Prospect Park, and the Como area, which is where 85 percent of the students live."
Brumm said parent groups who tried to talk with campus leaders about safety concerns were met with a lot of finger-pointing and little accountability.
"Every time we brought up an issue, University of Minnesota would say, 'No, that's a Minneapolis issue,' or Minneapolis would say, 'No, that's a University of Minnesota issue.' And we just felt like nobody would take the ball and run with it."
The group also got some sage advice: if you want to be taken seriously, you should form a non-profit. That's where Campus Safety Coalition came from. The group advocates and talks with students about safety measures they can take for themselves and provides resources--including law enforcement resources--that students can take advantage of to improve public safety.
One highly visible way the group is getting its cause out in the community is by sponsoring billboards that highlight specific Minneapolis and University of Minnesota police officers. The current billboard is on Interstate 35W north in Minneapolis. But the group has also earned one of its members a seat on the campus' new joint safety task force, a move Brumm said has already allowed many of its concerns to be taken seriously.
"I think we've definitely been able to impact some change," she said. "We're proud of that--but it's a huge, heavy lift."