Dear Chancellor Jennifer Sobanet,

         The students of UCCS woke up on Friday, February 16, 2024, to a text alert to start performing lockdown procedures: Locking doors, turning off lights, and staying silent for two hours until you released another alert telling us that only Alpine Village should shelter in place. During those two hours of fear and unknowing, students waited for any news about the situation. By noon, everyone knew two of our peers were dead; Samuel Knopp and Celie Montgomery lost their lives early in the morning on the UCCS campus; with no suspect in custody for multiple days, the community mourned the loss of not only Celie and Samuel but also Mia Brown, who passed earlier in the week from medical emergencies. As if the pang of death didn’t rest in our hearts and our minds, we received countless emails from you and University Communications, releasing statement after statement stating the tragedy that most of us lived through feet away from Crestone House, watching the news crews and police scour the lawns and trails surrounding our dorms. Nevertheless, more emails were sent explaining the closures of dining halls, offices, and events, ending each with student counseling resources, then emails about healing services, marches, and lounges with games and food as if your students felt safe on campus; it seems contradictory. It didn’t take long for the student body to speak up and remind you that there are no cameras in all of Alpine Village or Summit housing; the previous semester held multiple vehicle break-ins and stolen bikes on campus with little to no help from campus police or the parking services. Unfortunately, your healing day seemed like a celebration as you offered free food, movies, and activities to students and the community, welcoming people back on campus two days after the shooting, knowing it had only been hours since a suspect was in custody and was one of your students. You are responsible for the 11,000 students who enroll and pay tuition at UCCS, plus demand all first-year students live on campus, yet our safety isn’t worth the extra bill. We will not feel secure on a campus where anyone can enter the classrooms without an ID, with no cameras outside of student living areas, and where broken doors go unfixed for semesters. You’ve threatened us with cameras in our elevators yet left our living areas unprotected. This time, we lost two souls, but how long will it be until you are sending mass emails to parents and the community that dozens of your students are dead? 

            We are creating this petition to remind you, chancellor, that our safety is not a game to be played with, that as a student body, we will not feel safe on your campus until you provide appropriate safety measures for your students: cameras outside dormitories and apartment housing on campus, secure classroom buildings, and working surveillance in all parking locations. We ask you to consider these requests in honor of Samuel Knopp and Celie Montgomery.

Thank you for your attention to this matter, 

UCCS Students