“A University of Akron student was robbed at gunpoint Saturday at 2:30 a.m. on Carroll Street. The student said she was walking on campus near the Rec Center when a man with a gun came up behind her and asked for her purse. The student involved who does not wish to be named, said she did not know what to think when it was happening.”
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A University of Akron student was robbed at gunpoint Saturday at 2:30 a.m. on Carroll Street.

The student said she was walking on campus near the Rec Center when a man with a gun came up behind her and asked for her purse.

The student involved who does not wish to be named, said she did not know what to think when it was happening. She did not sustain any injuries from the robbery.

This incident is one of many, which are similar and have occurred in the past few weeks to UA students near campus. This was the first on-campus incident, but no Zipmail was sent to inform students until 11:45 Monday morning.

According to university police chief Paul Callahan, the decision to inform students regarding these incidents is not at his discretion. Instead the decision comes down from the Public Relations office of Paul Herold.

Herold could not be reached for comment after numerous attempts.

However, Callahan did offer suggestions as to why the Zipmail came almost two days after the incident occurred.

They might have thought there wasn’t anybody on campus that’s going to be able to get the Zipmail anyway, he said. They want to get the best bang for the buck I would think, and get it out when a majority of students are going to be able to see it.

The student involved in Saturday’s incident said she feels the university does a good job keeping students informed about incidents like hers.

In determining when an incident on or near campus makes it into a Zipmail, Callahan said students are who UA considers.

We work in conjunction on making those decisions, we have to consider the threat to the student body, he said. If there’s a danger depending on what the circumstances are, then we try to air on the side of being overly cautious on getting the news out so everybody is aware of it.

In the last week there have been three incidents near campus that UAPD handled. None of last week’s robberies involved a student. In all three the victims were beaten, to the ground – one was knocked unconscious – and their belongings were taken from them.

No Zipmail was ever sent out regarding the assault and robberies of the individuals.

You have to draw the line somewhere and say look, does this constitute necessity to notify the whole student body or not depends on the crime, Callahan said. I think you’ll find we’ve sent a number of Zipmails in reference to them when we’ve had them.

The last Special Edition Zipmail sent to students regarding crime was on Oct. 5, in regards to an armed carjacking of a student near the Polsky building.

Callahan agreed that this is not the first armed robbery to a student near UA, but he said the university has sent out Special Edition Zipmails when crimes similar to Saturday’s have occurred this year.

Obviously I would think an armed robbery where somebody is pointing a gun in your face is something that people should be made aware of and certainly follow the safety tips that we have recommended since I’ve been here, he said. You know you don’t walk by yourself especially at 2:30 in the morning.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to realize that’s not a very smart thing to be doing.

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