With the highly concerning increase of shootings and violent crimes occurring in neighborhoods predominantly populated by students, NIU loses credibility each time they justify their lack of meaningful responses to them on the grounds they were “off-campus shootings.”

What makes the lack of responses particularly egregious and hypocritical is the school’s blatant hostility to the Greek community, located in the same exact neighborhood as these shootings, and their belief that by coercing Greeks to force themselves onto their private property for draconian compliance checks every weekend, they are somehow keeping students safe. For those unfamiliar, these compliance checks are carried through by Student Involvement and Leadership Development in the form of walkarounds on late weekend nights to ensure that college kids follow every point of their harsh social policy, on their own property… off-campus. Which is it, then? Is Greek Row NIU’s property, or are they off-campus? Which shot is more dangerous, one from a gun or one from a bottle?

If these shootings are “off-campus,” and therefore NIU can’t and won’t take action on those grounds, then so is the Greek community; and school staff should not be allowed to coerce themselves onto private property for reasons that very clearly have nothing to do with the safety and well-being of students.

If NIU’s leaders continue to display breathtakingly bad decision making and leadership, and there is no reason to believe that they won’t, it is up to us students to fill the glaring void of leadership and take thorough action against the growing threat of violent crimes in our neighborhoods. Brushing them aside as the new normal of DeKalb is completely unacceptable. If inaction is continued, and this stunning rate of violence doesn’t cease, it is a matter of time before an innocent NIU student is seriously wounded or possibly killed; shootings are preventable tragedies that would weigh on the community’s conscience for years to come.