AUSTIN (KXAN) — Caden Ruder, a University of Texas at Austin junior, was one of three students assaulted in West Campus in April.
“I literally just turned a corner and got punched in the face,” Ruder said. “I blacked out for a second and didn’t really know where I was.”
He said that what made the event even scarier was that it felt completely random.
“You can do nothing and still end up a victim,” Ruder said.
A suspect was arrested in the case. But now, Ruder said he walks around West Campus like he would on Sixth Street — the downtown entertainment district the city has targeted for safety improvements. He’s more cautious of who’s around him and his environment, and said he feels that level of alert “shouldn’t be necessary right next to campus.”
Numerous campus initiatives over the past five years aimed to reduce crime on and off campus. Austin Police Department data shows during that time period, crime rates have remained steady, neither rising nor falling.
The West Campus neighborhood is the area bounded by Guadalupe Street to the east, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the south, North Lamar Boulevard to the west and 29th Street to the north.
It is home to an estimated 20,000 students living in a mix of high-rises, Greek life houses, apartment complexes and small co-ops and bungalows.
After recent aggravated assaults and stabbings, some UT students said they are concerned about safety in a place that is supposed to be the heart of student life. Others said they feel secure in the safety measures enforced by the university, APD and other members of the community.
By the numbers
APD crime data indicates crime rates in West Campus have remained relatively stable since 2021. Serious crimes, such as assaults, burglaries and robberies, make up 60% of the crimes committed there. The other 40% of crimes are non-violent offenses called “Part II crimes,” such as vandalism, public drunkenness and indecency.
The chart below shows consolidated crime data for the West Campus area since 2021, detailing the annual number of reported cases for each type of offense.
The numbers and students’ feelings of unease prompted an increase in UTPD and APD patrols, the installation of better lighting in 2022, the addition of emergency blue phones and the implementation of more visible safety initiatives, including West Campus Ambassadors in 2023.
Safety initiatives at UT Austin
UT has made several improvements to ensure the safety of students, the most notable being the “West Campus Initiative” launched in 2020 by the University Board of Regents.
The plan distributed $8 million over four years to increase safety measures in the neighborhood, like expanding police visibility and supporting additional law enforcement presence in the area. It created a new police district in West Campus, adding 11 new UTPD police officers and two police sergeants to the area.
In August 2023, the University launched the West Campus Ambassadors program, intending to make West Campus safe and clean. Safety ambassadors are trained to observe, report and be a visible presence in the area. Ambassadors are employed by Block By Block, an organization focused on urban renewal. Nicole Pampe, UT’s executive director of strategic communications, said the West Campus Ambassadors use a “safety in numbers” approach.
Ahead of the fall 2025 semester, UTPD expanded its police force into West Campus. The new approach ensured that approximately two dozen UTPD officers would be permanently stationed to patrol the neighborhood.
In an Aug. 4 press conference, UTPD Chief Shane Streepy said that UTPD and APD would be working together on the new initiative with one common goal: “A safer, more engaged West Campus — one patrol, one conversation, one collaboration at a time.”
Streepy said the new consistent presence of UTPD helps build trust with students in the area and supports joint enforcement efforts with the Austin Police Department.
SafeHorns is a parent-run organization working to ensure the safety of UT students both on and off campus. The group is working to further implement crime prevention through environmental design, or CPTED.
“We did a lot of research, gave Austin Energy crime data, got student feedback on where they felt unsafe, where they didn’t see enough lighting, and gave all the information to Austin Energy to prioritize,” SafeHorns President Joell McNew said.
McNew said CPTED guidelines advise for 30-foot visibility through illumination and vegetation trimming so that individuals can identify a person.
McNew encourages students to download the LiveSafe app, which provides immediate access to police dispatch and the ability to report suspicious activity and receive emergency notifications.
For emergencies, students are advised to contact 911. To make a police report, call UTPD at (512) 471-4441 or APD at (512) 974-2000.
What the students say
Earlier this month, SafeHorns hosted National Night Out, where it held a survey asking what safety concerns students had about UT’s campus and the surrounding neighborhood.
About 300 students completed the survey, with 158 saying they felt unsafe walking at night due to poor lighting and 136 saying they felt unsafe due to encounters with the homeless.
“Students are not reporting. They’re sharing with their friends and peers, but they’re not telling anyone in a position of authority that can create change,” McNew said. “That must change.”
In West Campus, students’ attitudes toward safety are divided. Six of the 10 students we spoke to feel secure going through the day-to-day in the neighborhood, while the others described a sense of vulnerability.
Elina Carrasco, a former UT student living in West Campus, said she is constantly on alert and feels that notifications from the university regarding crime aren’t sufficient in keeping students informed.
“I walk around West Campus kinda looking over my shoulder,” Carrasco said. “I think as a student, they [do] not inform us well. I [don’t] feel well-informed on what [is] going on.”
Despite the CPTED efforts, Mario Rios, another resident, said there are a lot of factors that are involved in crime in West Campus, one of those being poor lighting.
“There’s a section that’s not lit up at all. Even if I ride a scooter past that section, I feel iffy,” Rios said. “I’ve seen people just standing there, and you feel like a sense of, ‘I don’t know if he’s gonna follow me.'”
Still, not all students share the same level of unease. Some said with recent safety improvements, like the increased police patrols implemented on Aug. 4, they feel fine in West Campus.
Senior Britney Bui said that for the most part, she feels pretty safe when walking around West Campus.
“Compared to my freshman year, 2022, I would say that there’s been more visible patrolling this semester,” Bui said. “It’s definitely been better.”
Ruder, the student assaulted in April, remains skeptical, even though he has noticed the increased police presence in West Campus this year. He feels that, overall, the same amount of crime is happening.
“I feel like even if they tried implementing something, the results aren’t necessarily there,” Ruder said.
On-campus crime
The concerns aren’t just for West Campus; there have been violent crimes on campus that contribute to students’ unease.
UT is unique with the West Campus neighborhood since other schools in Texas don’t have a concentrated area where students live that is comparable. When students are looking at safety statistics, they’re often looking at on-campus crime numbers.
Students raised concerns about safety following the discovery of two bodies on UT’s campus, one in April and another in September. The deaths were determined not to be suspicious.
The Clery Act is a federal mandate requiring colleges and universities to disclose campus crime statistics, ensuring public access to crime data and transparency regarding student safety. According to UT’s 2024 Clery Report, on-campus incidents included 25 burglaries, 15 motor vehicle thefts, eight robberies and three aggravated assaults. Compared to the 2023 Clery Report, burglary and robbery increased, while motor theft and aggravated assault decreased.
Previously, there have been two notable cases of students being killed on campus: Haruka Weiser in 2016 and Harrison Brown in 2017.
Weiser, a freshman, was killed in April 2016 and discovered near Waller Creek, adjacent to the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center. Her killer was later identified as Meechaiel Criner, a homeless teen, who would be seen on surveillance videos around Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Criner was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Brown was fatally stabbed in the chest by fellow UT student Kendrex White, who then went on to stab three additional students outside Gregory Gym in May 2017. White was recently granted a transfer from a state mental hospital to an outpatient treatment facility.
In 2010, a UT student opened fire with an AK-47 in the Perry-Castañeda Library, leading to a campus-wide lockdown. No other students were injured, but the gunman died by suicide.
If you or someone you know needs support or advice, you can go online to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline to chat with a counselor or call 988. These resources are available 24/7.
Campus crime statewide
UT Austin is not the only school in the state to deal with crime; recent studies show this is a pattern across other Texas universities.
Many prospective students turn to college ranking websites to guide their decision-making. Platforms like CollegeRanker and Degree Choices provide a variety of tools, from identifying top schools for specific programs to highlighting institutions with the most bang for their buck.
They also conduct research regarding campus safety, as it’s a growing concern for incoming students and their families.
In a 2025 CollegeRanker study, Texas State University ranked as the 12th-most dangerous college in the nation, with Texas Tech University at 14th. A 2023 Degree Choices study ranked Texas A&M as the sixth most dangerous campus in the nation and the University of Texas at Austin as the 26th.
The Clery reports from the four campuses — the University of Texas at Austin, Texas State University, Texas Tech University and Texas A&M University — showed the following:
CollegeRanker and Degree Choices used information from the U.S. Department of Education to form their rankings. CollegeRanker additionally noted in their methodology that they also assessed data from the FBI and the Clery reports from universities nationwide, among others, to form their rankings.
While each university has its own approach to safety, the data on each campus gives context to growing concerns of campus safety around the state. The sentiment from each university is that student safety is of the highest priority. As institutions work to improve safety, students and families are left considering not just academics, but also safety measures when choosing where to call home.
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