Week 6 Utica OD comments- Oh Yeah?

http://www.uticaod.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060212/NEWS/602120307/1001

"SUNYIT Promises Safety"
Sunday, Feb 12, 2006

Hmmm, in the headline it says Mr. Spina, the interim president of SUNYIT, "promises safety", but nowhere in the article do I read that he actually promised safety. Good thing, because no one can promise safety in a situation like this. There is an expression, " stuff happens", and stuff can certainly happen when you have 300 violent sex offenders incarcerated nearby . Although certainly the prison takes many precautions, prisoners can, and do, escape from even the best prisons. This may not be a likely event, but all it takes is for that unlikely event to occur and involve a friend or loved one, and the tragedy is brought home to you.

I wonder how Mr. Spina will reassure prospective students and their parents ( who are no doubt more difficult to reassure than the prospective students) about the safety of the SUNYIT campus with 300 violent sex offenders residing" just down the road". There are many SUNY campuses, why would people choose to come to a campus with 300 violent sex offenders incarcerated nearby? How many of these families would buy a home in the proximity of such a facility? And equally as important, or it should be, once these people are released from prison, how many of them will remain in the local area? Sexual offenders have some of the highest rates of recidivism in the penal system, and it is disturbing to consider that an unknown number of them may stay in this area after release. The number of young women attending SUNYIT might make it an irresistable "hunting ground" for some of these released men.

SUNYIT already is perceived by some people to have a recruiting problem. I can hardly believe that Mr. Spina does not understand that the incarceration of 300 violent sexual offenders in the general neighborhood of the college will not enhance SUNYIT's recruitment possibilites.