To: Brian Rapp From: Group 5: Kendra Duncan, Jordan Rutledge, and Nicolette Shurba Re: Proposal to write

a research report on crime affecting the UCF community and create a list of recommendations for safety practices as well as a plan for increasing awareness. Date: October 25, 2012

Summary
Thousands of students gather on college campuses where acts of violence may occur. This proposal investigates violence affecting the University of Central Florida community. We will specifically create a list of recommendations for safety practices as well as a plan for increasing awareness of violence on campus settings.

Introduction
Violence is a reality on America's college campuses, and UCF is not immune. Media coverage of mass shootings such as those at the University of Texas (1966), University of Arizona School of Nursing (2002), Virginia Tech (2007), Northern Illinois University (2008), and University of Alabama (2010) has increased public awareness of serious violence on college campuses. Nevertheless, the risk of these types of events occurring is slim. Other forms of crime such as harassment, stalking, theft, and sexual and physical assault are more common and can have equally devastating and long-lasting consequences for victims. Colleges must respond proactively to the risk, taking reasonable steps to inform faculty and students and to ensure the safety of the campus community. Students and parents must also take steps to educate themselves about potential risks and effective safety practices.

Audience
The intended audience for this report on crime in the university setting consists of all members of the college community including administrators, faculty, staff, and students. Families of students and employees are also included in this list. Currently (2011-2012) there are approximately 57,000 students enrolled at the University of Central Florida and 10,500 employees.

Proposed Solution
After defining the nature and the scope of crime on the UCF campus, researching current best practices from campuses across the nation, and outlining a list of UCF's current safety procedures, Group 5 will establish a comprehensive list of recommendations for enhancing campus safety and preventing crime at UCF. The group will also develop a plan to share this information with the college community so that all are informed and work together to prevent violent incidents on the UCF campus.

Method
In order to form a full picture and to achieve the objectives for the research report, Group 5 will gather and analyze a combination of quantitative and qualitative data. Because the group is looking for specific information pertaining to crime on university campuses, it is important that the resources provide both types of data; thus, it is Group five's decision to gather information on crime occurring on campus via the following methods:

Quantitative Data
The group will analyze quantitative data to define the scope of violence in the university setting. Members will gather statistical information from the UCF library, UCF Police and Orange County Sheriff's departments, and polls.

Qualitative Data
The group will analyze qualitative data to gain a deeper understanding of the safety issues that specifically impact the UCF community and the community's perceptions about them. Members will gather this information from interviews, observations, surveys, and written documents such as newspaper articles.

Convenience Survey
As a quick way to receive input from fellow UCF students, Group 5 agreed to host a poll on the popular social networking site, Reddit. Reddit is an online community of over 35 million users and consists of smaller communities within it called subreddits. Group 5 created a poll on easypolls.net and posted the link on the UCF subreddit, which consists of 2,283 users, in order to get an idea of how safe UCF students feel on campus. The group can collect both quantitative and qualitative data through this method.

Schedule
The project will take place in five phases, each designed to meet specific goals during that period. The dates for each phase are as follows: 1) Researching 10/22-11/4 2) Drafting 11/5-11/18 3) Review and Revision 11/19-11/25 4) Final Review- editing and proofreading 11/26-11/28 5) Project submission 11/29

Researching Phase
During this phase, group members will be responsible for researching information for their respective portions of the report. They will compile relevant data, evidence, and support from various sources. Group members will also create a list of references for the resources that they plan to use in the group report following proper MLA format.

Drafting Phase
During this phase, group members will compose drafts for their respective sections of the group report. Once the individual sections are complete, group members will draft any additional portions of the report as outlined in the assignment such as a table of contents, introduction, summary, conclusion, and appendices.

Review and Revision Phase

During this phase, the group will incorporate all drafts into one cohesive document. Each group member will be responsible for ensuring that her section of the report meets the guidelines of the assignment and is relatively free of problems in the content. Group 5 will work together to review and revise the completed report for consistent organization, voice, and style as well as development, coherence, and clarity.

Final Review: editing and proofreading

During this phase, group members will review the completed document for typographical errors and mistakes in mechanics, grammar, and spelling.

Project Submission
Group 5 will submit the final group report before or on the deadline as outlined in the course syllabus.

Problems
Whenever groups work collaboratively on a project, there are inevitable and often unforeseen situations that can present a challenge. Group 5 has developed a plan for the most common issues that may occur.

Communication issues
Communication is an important element in creating a group project. Thus far, Group 5 has been relying on email to discuss ideas and share documents and information. Unfortunately, email messages can be lost, attachments may not open, and valuable time is wasted, as each member must wait for others to receive and respond before proceeding. In order to avoid delays, group members will check their email on a daily basis and send an acknowledgment to other members as soon they receive a message that includes either a response or a statement of when they will respond or complete the request.

Research issues
One of the methods that Group 5 plans to use for research is by conducting a survey of students, faculty, and staff at UCF. This method can present many problems such as time and cost, planning and designing the survey, finding participants, and gathering responses. In addition, posting the poll on Reddit posed several concerns. The first of which is that the students who participated had to voluntarily take themselves to the link hosting the survey, as is the case with all internet-based polls. This skews with results in the fact that the pool of those surveyed may not be ideally diverse. Other concerns include people submitting a vote that does not truly reflect their opinions, people voting multiple times, and/or inadequate phrasing of the survey question or answers.

Technology issues
Power and internet outages
Power and internet outages can interfere with the ability of the group to share information efficiently, communicate through email, and complete tasks in a timely matter. The group has budgeted enough time for each phase of the project that outages should not be an issue. Each member is responsible for backing up his or her work so that it is not damaged or lost.

Loss of data
Data can be lost when being exchanged between multiple computers and sites. Group members will back up all work on their personal devices. Working collaboratively can also have the downfall of one individual writing over another's work or accidentally deleting information. When any group member makes an edit, addition, or change, the original version she will preserve the changes in the new version saved under a different file name (i.e. roughdraft2.doc). Finally, team members will notify the sender if an attachment does not arrive in an email or the attachment will not open. This way the group can work together to solve the problem quickly.

Incompatibility
Group members are working with different systems, which can lead to problems with software compatibility. However, all team members are able to open Word documents; therefore, compatibility is not an issue at this point. If the need should arise, team members have the option of saving documents in a PDF format.

Contribution issues
The group realizes that circumstances such as illness can impact the contributions of individuals. In the event that a team member is unable to contribute to a task or abide by the schedule, she will be responsible for notifying the group immediately so that the rest of the group may work to find a solution.

Qualifications
Kendra Duncan is a current UCF student who has a stake in the safety of the college community. She holds a bachelor's degree in secondary English education and is presently an English major in the technical communication track. She has a strong background in writing and editing for a variety of purposes including research reports. She also has experience working in an educational setting at both the high school and college levels where campus safety is an important interest, and she helped to develop strategies for dealing with potential risks. Jordan Rutledge is an undergraduate at the University of Central Florida majoring in English. Requirements of this track require a student to be proficient in research and information analysis and criticism. Jordan is also an active feminist, concerned with equality of all sexes, including in instances of violence, crime, and societys reactions to these. Nicolette Shurba is an undergraduate student at the University of Central Florida. She is currently studying as an English major with a minor in Womens Studies. Megan Whitehall is an undergraduate student at the University of Central Florida. She is a transferring student from Palm Beach State. Therefore, this is her first semester attending UCF. She is a technical communications major, and plans to use this to pursue a career in the publishing and editing field. Megan also takes interest in women writers of color. She has a strong passion in writing, especially types of writing that concerns informational.