UH President, Board Chair address safety concerns after several crimes, including a sexual assault on campus

HOUSTON - Parents and students are voicing their concerns at the University of Houston after a string of crimes on campus, including a student who was sexually assaulted.

On Wednesday. the university's president and board chair spoke about the incidents. 

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The University of Houston has increased the number of police officers patrolling and is doing things such as expediting the completion of its $18-million lighting project to add more lights around campus.

This comes after there have been two scooter robberies, a cell phone theft, and a student was sexually assaulted in the Welcome Center Parking Garage.

Eric Brown, who is charged with aggravated sexual assault and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, is now behind bars on a $15-million bond, which was announced in his probable cause court hearing.

"He allegedly pushed her into her car, pushed the knife into her neck, and threatened to kill her," says a court worker to the court judge.

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What they're saying:

"I want our campus, its learning environment, its working environment to be safe. We cannot tolerate this kind of thing," says University of Houston President Renu Khator.

"Many parents feel anxious, frustrated, and helpless and are afraid. Our children are afraid," says Pamela Hidinger, who has a freshman at UH.

"I totally get it. They should be upset because four incidents have happened in the same week. I am upset, and I am concerned," Khator added.

"This is a city of 50,000, between the students, faculty, the administration. This is not an unsafe environment. Sure, we had a few incidents, but there's always going to be incidents when you're dealing with cities of 50,000. We'd like to have none," explains UH Board Chair Tilman Fertitta.  

"We're asking for three things. Number one, emergency funding for immediate improvements. Number two, transparency, better communication and interaction on short-term and long-term solutions. Number three, potential long-term solutions that parents want to see," says Hidinger.

"First, it was important to focus on the immediate term, make sure people feel safe ,and this kind of thing doesn't happen. Now, it's the long term. So now, I'm going to hire an outside expert consultant to come in here and look at campus safety and security. I've also set up a task force where I'm going to have students, faculty, and staff so we can take everybody's input," adds President Khator.

"The university reports the lighting and security project as an achievement, but to students it's a joke. Poor lighting has been the biggest safety concern, yet the university believes their slow and expensive lighting project is something to boast about," says University of Houston Senior, Mina.

"Even one crime is a crime too many. We don't want any of those things. I'm a mother. I know if I got an alert that says there have been four incidents in one week, I would be very concerned, and I'm concerned as president too," Khator said.  

Khator said her plan is to have experts look at all infrastructure, practices, and policies and come up with a solution to improve safety. 

Sexual assault suspect Eric Brown has a hearing on Thursday morning at 9 a.m. It’ll be his first time appearing in court after refusing to attend his initial court hearing on Tuesday night.