Fighting Illini Corey Lewis: Defender Of Campus.

My opinion of Corey Lewis, an Illini offensive lineman finishing up his junior year here at the U of I just shot up about 200% today, when i read his letter to the Daily Illini today. At issue is the matter of an increase in crime on the Illinois campus and worries that the crime reports, which are mandatory by law, maybe creating a negative image of African Americans on campus. This is a very contentious issue here on campus with some sides saying that race is something necessary to be included in reports to help accurately describe assailants, and others expressing their concerns that race is likely the only identifying factor students will see in the crime reports.

Corey Lewis has been paying attention to this issue, as we all have and expressed his proposal for a way to help both mend a possible racial divide on campus and hopefully cut down on the number of night time attacks in general.

I know there has been a lot of controversy around the use of race in the crime reports we get in our e-mail, but I think I have a solution for those who say they are only making people fear all black men: Let the football team get involved with SafeWalks.

I think it would be a great opportunity for the campus to get to know the team on a personal level, and it would help fight the negative image sometimes put on people like me, black men. During the offseason, the team could commit four or more players a night, with each player on the team having to volunteer a certain number of times every year.

A lot of the Crime-Alerts talk about groups of people ganging up on a single person. I know none of my teammates would let that happen to anyone. The team could use our sometimes intimidating size to help the student community and keep away potential attackers.

I like the way Lewis thinks, the vast majority of campus may not ever come into contact with football players in their years on campus, others may on a daily basis. Lewis' idea of having the football team get involved in campus safety or at least being more in contact with other students in general is a good one, but i doubt Zook would want his star players out there at night mixing it up with muggers. Nonetheless Lewis is on the right track here, more students should use safe walks, and in general have a friend who is a football player. (No one, but no one messes without you at a bar when you have a linebacker at your back.)

It is tempting to say that a campus full of would be football superheros, protecting the rest of the student body would be awesome but it is of course not going to happen. I believe campus police can dedicate themselves even more to helping students feel safe at night, but there is only so much police, campus security or other groups can do. If you are walking home from the bars, don't do so alone. Use safe walks and safe rides, especially if you are heading north of campus.

We shouldn't need to have Lewis or other football players walk with us to feel safe at night. But to have a guy like this at least offer a solution to real campus problems shows me that we have some awesome people on this team, and represent the rest of the campus very well.