While many New Jersey universities employ dedicated campus security teams, the immediate surrounding areas often present severe and unique safety risks for the student body. This is especially true for urban institutions like the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rutgers University (Newark and Camden campuses), and New Jersey City University. The core issue is that current state laws treat a violent assault occurring steps away from a college campus the exact same as an assault occurring anywhere else. This legal blind spot leaves commuting students, particularly females walking alone, highly vulnerable to violent acts from transient individuals unaffiliated with the universities.

Currently, the primary tool for keeping students informed is the federal Jeanne Clery Act, which requires universities to maintain daily crime logs and issue Timely Warnings for serious threats. However, these measures are strictly reactive. Sending a campus wide notification after a student has been assaulted does not deter the crime from happening in the first place.

Furthermore, while campus police departments actively patrol university footprints, their primary jurisdiction is university property. They cannot realistically police broader urban wards with the same intensity. Violent offenders who loiter just outside campus boundaries face no enhanced legal consequences for targeting a concentrated and vulnerable student population.

To successfully petition the State Legislature, we must prove that enhanced penalty zones are a standard and proven legal tool in our state. New Jersey law already acknowledges that certain geographic areas require heightened legal protection.

Under Title 2C of the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice, the state enforces enhanced penalties and mandatory minimum sentences for specific offenses committed within 1,000 feet of a K through 12 school or a school bus.

Similar legal enhancements automatically apply to crimes committed within 500 feet of public parks, public housing facilities, and public buildings.

University students walking to class in Newark, Camden, Jersey City, and across the state deserve the same proactive legal buffering as younger students or patrons of public parks. The current legislative framework leaves a critical gap in protecting higher education environments.

We demand that the New Jersey State Legislature amend Title 2C to establish 1,000-foot Safe College Zones around all accredited higher education institutions in the state. This legislation will ensure that violent offenses committed in areas adjacent to campuses carry enhanced felony classifications and stricter mandatory minimums, finally prioritizing student safety over reactive policing.