To the Editor:

Re: “Alert Us, But Don’t Leave Us Hanging,” Opinion, Sept. 24

This editorial is helpful in emphasizing the University’s desire to provide timely notice about criminal activity affecting, or potentially affecting, members of the campus community. For several years, the University has publicized notices about such crimes, as well as other important public-safety information, in the Safety Zone section of CUInfo (http://cuinfo.cornell.edu/). And in cases where either on-campus or nearby criminal activity involves a possible ongoing threat to members of our community, the University also sends out crime alerts, campuswide, by e-mail.

The University issues these alerts primarily to provide information to help enhance the safety of the members of our campus community, but also to fulfill the federal requirement for providing timely warning of such ongoing activity (http://www.securityoncampus.org/pdf/handbook.pdf).

We urge all members of the campus community to access Safety Zone to update themselves on these crime alert notices, and we also suggest that students and staff members follow reports of criminal activity in their local media (including The Sun). We have enhanced the offerings in Safety Zone to provide links to sites (including the Ithaca Police Department web site) that provide follow-up information on criminal notices. And we will include updates to our posted crime alerts as we receive relevant information from law enforcement agencies.

We also ask that area media, including The Sun, continue to work with local police agencies in order to publish updated criminal and public safety information of importance to their readers.

Tommy Bruce,

Vice President for University Communications