8th Floor Improv troupe creates safety advertisements

And for Ohio State students, many find sanctuary within comedy and YouTube - this is why University Police and University Relations worked with the 8th Floor Improv comedy troupe to create a series of safety messages for OSU students.

"The interesting thing about this is that it really is a peer-to-peer crime prevention message - that's something that's pretty new for us," said Dave Rose, OSU police captain. "And I think you'll be probably pleasantly surprised at how entertaining the video is. There's some comedy mixed in and that's what the group is known for."

The video, titled "Unlocked Doors," launched today and is available on the OSU police Web site, YouTube and as a commercial on campus cable TV. It is the first in a series of public safety messages created by the 8th Floor Improv on crime prevention at OSU.

Gateway shooting Doug Aschenbach, executive vice president of Campus Partners, reaffirmed the isolated nature of the shooting in which a man was killed March 30 in the South Campus Gateway parking garage.

"We always evaluate our processes and procedures when an incident happens, to evaluate those and see whether there's something we could have anticipated or done differently," Aschenbach said. "And I think we, and even the media accounts and other people that have been interviewed, have really concluded that this was an accident - and again it was really an unfortunate way for two individuals to resolve a dispute."

This was the second shooting since the garage's opening in 2005.

"We do believe that we have a secure parking facility - that we have a welcoming environment of South Campus Gateway," said Steve Sterrett, community relations director for Campus Partners. "These two crimes were tragic - that they don't represent the typical situation of South Campus Gateway. And we welcome suggestions, ideas as we go forward about enhancing security."

New safety initiative OSU Police chief Paul Denton said campus and Columbus police have deployed a high-visibility initiative to increase their presence in the off-campus area Thursday through Saturday.

"They are information driven, crime analysis driven, so they react to crime trends properly identified through Columbus police crime analysis," Denton said.

And Community Crime Patrol, who will be adding more crime patrollers, and Undergraduate Student Government have also become partners in the program and will help with crime-prevention and student safety during spring quarter.

"One goal that I've set - I'll say it publicly, that we will have no university crime alerts during the period that we have the initiative working," Denton said.

Spartan riots In response to last week's riot at MSU, in which police used tear gas and flash-bangs to disperse rioters chanting, "We want tear gas," the safety committee discussed factors leading up to the riot as well as how technology fueled the disturbance.

"What was different about this, somewhat, was the use of technology," said Andrea Goldblum, director of Student Judicial Affairs. "It was advertised widely on Facebook, and there were also comments on Facebook, encouraging rioting kind of behavior."

In the state of Ohio, if a student is convicted of a crime of violence that is related to a university, he or she will be dismissed from the university for a year and must seek approval by the Board of Trustees to return, Goldblum said.

And there are a plethora of crimes of violence: arson, assault, rioting and even misdemeanor assault.

"And I don't know that the Board of Trustees has ever approved somebody who's been dismissed under that statute to return," Goldblum said. "They also are not eligible to be at another state institution."

"Getting into that fight or setting a couch on fire can have much greater implications than people realize."

Eric House can be reached at house.93@osu.edu.