FARK.com: (7116478) After the murder of two Chinese USC students, their parents are suing the college on the grounds that USC's marketing materials described the campus as being in an "urban" location rather than "crime infested"

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		After the murder of two Chinese USC students, their parents are suing the college on the grounds that USC's marketing materials described the campus as being in an "urban" location rather than "crime infested" (nytimes.com)		224
		More: Fail, University of Southern California, Chinese, safe area, graduate students, internet application, murders, colleges, foreign students

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8011 clicks; posted to Main » on 20 May 2012 at 4:13 PM | Favorite | share:

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St_Francis_P		2012-05-20 02:41:08 PM

The 15-page lawsuit accuses the institution of hiding behind the word "urban" and not saying the campus is in a high-crime area. It also notes that Chinese students in particular would interpret "urban" to mean the university is in a safe area.

I'm sorry for their loss, but that statement makes no sense whatsoever.

RandomAxe		2012-05-20 03:30:39 PM

Universities have been successfully sued before on the grounds of creating a false or exaggerated expectation of a safe campus environment.

There are various issues involved: The university's responsibility to provide a safe environment. False advertising. Possible endangerment of students by misleading them (lulling them into a false sense of security, essentially).

I'm not saying this particular case is justified, but it's not a new concept in litigation, and it's sometimes justified. That 14-year-old who vanished while attending MSU back in the 80s leaps to mind. The university assured his parents that he'd be specially looked after because of his age, and then they basically just gave the kid a dorm room and a class schedule. Oops.

Foreign students obviously pose certain problems, as far as this stuff goes. In my own experience, some schools do a great job of making life easier and safer for foreign students, and some just take their money and let them fend for themselves. I would have thought USC would be pretty good with Chinese students, at least, though.

Allen. The end.		2012-05-20 04:17:08 PM

UW is right next to a series of crappy ghetto buildings. Students get robbed all the time, harassed by thuglets and shrieking negresses, but since Seattle is SO very PC, they can't put two and two together...

/shrieking negress would be a good band name...

SoCalSurfer		2012-05-20 04:19:06 PM

USC is in LA. Everything is crime infested, a simple google search will tell you that.......oh wait......

Farty McPooPants		2012-05-20 04:19:32 PM

Drug deal gone bad?

TKM		2012-05-20 04:20:28 PM

If they didn't understand "urban" what would they make of Mau Mau Territory?

fusillade762		2012-05-20 04:20:42 PM

SoCalSurfer: USC is in LA. Everything is crime infested, a simple google search will tell you that.......oh wait......

Ha! I see what you did there.

borg		2012-05-20 04:20:43 PM

Isn't USC in the middle of Watts?

Dafatone		2012-05-20 04:21:38 PM

Allen. The end.: UW is right next to a series of crappy ghetto buildings. Students get robbed all the time, harassed by thuglets and shrieking negresses, but since Seattle is SO very PC, they can't put two and two together...

/shrieking negress would be a good band name...

What? No it isn't. Unless I missed something when I lived there (possible, was only in town for 6 months), or if you consider a bunch of pierced people running around the U-district a threat.

Fluorescent Testicle		2012-05-20 04:22:23 PM

Allen. The end.: UW is right next to a series of crappy ghetto buildings. Students get robbed all the time, harassed by thuglets and shrieking negresses, but since Seattle is SO very PC, they can't put two and two together...

Well, that sure didn't take long. Fark never disappoints.

Heist		2012-05-20 04:22:24 PM

The two graduate students, Ming Qu and Ying Wu, were shot on April 11 while sitting in a BMW about a mile from campus. Both were 23 years old.

A car brand alone doesn't indicate guilt, but I'd put money on this being the direct result of nouveau riche Chinese lacking common sense.

AverageAmericanGuy		2012-05-20 04:22:37 PM

Allen. The end.: UW is right next to a series of crappy ghetto buildings. Students get robbed all the time, harassed by thuglets and shrieking negresses, but since Seattle is SO very PC, they can't put two and two together...

/shrieking negress would be a good band name...

Seattle is also relatively safe, as far as cities go.

I wouldn't hold UW up as a model for anything.

Guidette Frankentits		2012-05-20 04:22:46 PM

You have to be an idiot to not know the area around USC is a gang-infested war-zone.

Why do you think it earned the nick-name

University of South Central?

clowncar		2012-05-20 04:23:16 PM

Quote: "It also notes that Chinese students in particular would interpret "urban" to mean the university is in a safe area."

Actually, that does kind of suck. Time to update the Chinese = English translation dictionary, ay?

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom		2012-05-20 04:23:45 PM

Maybe they're only point of reference was the time they visited Urban Outfitters on vacation. They thought USC was in a neighborhood filled with trust fund hipsters with bad taste in music.

TravisBickle62		2012-05-20 04:23:48 PM

We all know what "urban" means

jenlen		2012-05-20 04:23:56 PM

Urban... High Crime. Synonyms.

Same difference to me?

AverageAmericanGuy		2012-05-20 04:25:49 PM

clowncar: Quote: "It also notes that Chinese students in particular would interpret "urban" to mean the university is in a safe area."

Actually, that does kind of suck. Time to update the Chinese = English translation dictionary, ay?

The word "urban" really should be retired and only used in official city planning documents.

It is little more than a whitewashed was to say "black" without letting your true racist colors show.

That they would even use "urban" in their marketing materials is pretty pathetic.

Roquefort		2012-05-20 04:27:24 PM

So...USC is in an attractive and successful location?

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom		2012-05-20 04:28:05 PM

heypete		2012-05-20 04:28:24 PM

FTFA: It also notes that Chinese students in particular would interpret "urban" to mean the university is in a safe area.

When moving to a different country, populated by people who speak a different language and have a different culture, it's probably wise to not assume anything.

/American grad student in Switzerland
//moved here without assuming anything, even things explicitly promised by the university ("all graduate classes are in English"...except for Applied Nuclear Physics, which is in German. Oh, and so are the lecture notes in the classes that are taught in English.)
///not really worried about crime -- everyone has automatic rifles at home and crime is rare

rebelyell2006		2012-05-20 04:30:09 PM

jenlen: Urban... High Crime. Synonyms.

Same difference to me?

Except for China, where urban areas are safe and not loaded with hobos and plebs carrying guns and knives?

Lorelle		2012-05-20 04:30:37 PM

The entire U.S.A. is crime-infested.

borg: Isn't USC in the middle of Watts?

No.

numbone		2012-05-20 04:31:01 PM

They could learn from the Japanese.

Link

TravisBickle62		2012-05-20 04:31:10 PM

They initiated the confrontation by looking at the urban people. The Chinese should be instructed not to make eye contact with the urban people, because if you do, it's your ass.

RibbyK		2012-05-20 04:31:35 PM

AverageAmericanGuy: Democrats is little more than a whitewashed way to say "black" without letting your true racist colors show.

/Heard demos=black at a golf tourney in Chicago from a drunk Irishman.
//Attempting to offend as many as possible in one posting

ReapTheChaos		2012-05-20 04:31:41 PM

Ming Qu and Ying Wu, were shot on April 11 while sitting in a BMW about a mile from campus.

Their parents filed a lawsuit accusing the university of making false claims about safety at the campus...

Anyone else see a problem here?

Gyrfalcon		2012-05-20 04:31:57 PM

Heist: The two graduate students, Ming Qu and Ying Wu, were shot on April 11 while sitting in a BMW about a mile from campus. Both were 23 years old.

A car brand alone doesn't indicate guilt, but I'd put money on this being the direct result of nouveau riche Chinese lacking common sense.

If they were a mile from campus, how is the university to blame?

A mile from campus puts them in the darkest heart of a place I'd never go without a gun and a badge. Well, I have, but I had a badge and a radio. And the locals liked me.

DiRF		2012-05-20 04:32:14 PM

RandomAxe: That 14-year-old who vanished while attending MSU back in the 80s leaps to mind. The university assured his parents that he'd be specially looked after because of his age, and then they basically just gave the kid a dorm room and a class schedule. Oops.

Never heard of that... link?

BMFPitt		2012-05-20 04:32:25 PM

Allen. The end.: UW is right next to a series of crappy ghetto buildings. Students get robbed all the time, harassed by thuglets and shrieking negresses, but since Seattle is SO very PC, they can't put two and two together...

/shrieking negress would be a good band name...

Racial code words aside, actual urban areas (as in cities) are generally higher crime areas than non-urban ones.

The premise is absurd even when taking the statement literally.

praxis44241		2012-05-20 04:32:43 PM

I went to Yale for a conference years ago. Talk about a Slumfest!

MC O'Brien		2012-05-20 04:34:21 PM

I attended USC back in the day, and yeah, students really shouldn't step one foot off the campus, let alone being a mile away. One day there was a Raiders game at the stadium. Raiders lost, and a riot ensued, with hundreds of angry Raiders fans storming through the campus. At least I wasn't there the following year, during the Rodney King riots. They put all the students in giant gyms to protect them.
The area around UW might as well be Bellevue compared to the area around USC.

Allen. The end.		2012-05-20 04:34:45 PM

Boy, did I get stomped on quicklike! I had it coming...

/although Seattle is really safe...

SoCalSurfer		2012-05-20 04:35:01 PM

ReapTheChaos: Ming Qu and Ying Wu, were shot on April 11 while sitting in a BMW about a mile from campus.

Their parents filed a lawsuit accusing the university of making false claims about safety at the campus...

Anyone else see a problem here?

Sure would like to be the defense. Easiest case ever

RibbyK		2012-05-20 04:35:55 PM

ReapTheChaos: Ming Qu and Ying Wu, were shot on April 11 while sitting in a BMW about a ~~mile~~ 1.5km from campus.
Their parents filed a lawsuit accusing the university of making false claims about safety at the campus...
Anyone else see a problem here?

Because they use the metric system in China?

pyrotek85		2012-05-20 04:37:20 PM

BMFPitt: Allen. The end.: UW is right next to a series of crappy ghetto buildings. Students get robbed all the time, harassed by thuglets and shrieking negresses, but since Seattle is SO very PC, they can't put two and two together...

/shrieking negress would be a good band name...

Racial code words aside, actual urban areas (as in cities) are generally higher crime areas than non-urban ones.

The premise is absurd even when taking the statement literally.

That's what I was thinking. I honestly don't think 'black' when I hear the word 'urban', I think of a densely populated area which usually means higher than normal rates of crime. It's not like this is different everywhere else in the world.

Heron		2012-05-20 04:39:24 PM

St_Francis_P: The 15-page lawsuit accuses the institution of hiding behind the word "urban" and not saying the campus is in a high-crime area. It also notes that Chinese students in particular would interpret "urban" to mean the university is in a safe area.

I'm sorry for their loss, but that statement makes no sense whatsoever.

Cities in China are safer than the country-side, and it's been that way for centuries. To start off, cities in China were originally artificial, fortified administrative centers where trade congregated due to monopoly grants, a steady clientele generated by government, and the safety of patrolled city walls. Now, cities are heavily policed while the country-side is more often than not left to under-funded village cadres and, in certain areas, the military.

I don't want to give the impression that driving around in China is likely to get you jacked by bandits or anything, but it's certainly less safe from a crime perspective than the big cities, and the impression that most exchange students would have of rural criminality would be heightened because most Chinese exchange students are going to be the children of well-off, coastal city dwellers who, as a group, rarely leave the cities and consume a steady media diet of tv and cinema dramas built around the rural bandit groups of earlier eras.

Adolph Oliver Bush		2012-05-20 04:40:02 PM

I thought Chinese people were supposed to be smart.

AverageAmericanGuy		2012-05-20 04:40:28 PM

pyrotek85: BMFPitt: Allen. The end.: UW is right next to a series of crappy ghetto buildings. Students get robbed all the time, harassed by thuglets and shrieking negresses, but since Seattle is SO very PC, they can't put two and two together...

/shrieking negress would be a good band name...

Racial code words aside, actual urban areas (as in cities) are generally higher crime areas than non-urban ones.

The premise is absurd even when taking the statement literally.

That's what I was thinking. I honestly don't think 'black' when I hear the word 'urban', I think of a densely populated area which usually means higher than normal rates of crime. It's not like this is different everywhere else in the world.

Seriously, though. If you honestly don't think "black" when someone says "urban", you're a pollyanna.

Metafilter might be a good site for you.

Hagenhatesyouall		2012-05-20 04:40:41 PM

I bet the killers were wearing hoodies.....

jenlen		2012-05-20 04:42:09 PM

pyrotek85: BMFPitt: Allen. The end.: UW is right next to a series of crappy ghetto buildings. Students get robbed all the time, harassed by thuglets and shrieking negresses, but since Seattle is SO very PC, they can't put two and two together...

/shrieking negress would be a good band name...

Racial code words aside, actual urban areas (as in cities) are generally higher crime areas than non-urban ones.

The premise is absurd even when taking the statement literally.

That's what I was thinking. I honestly don't think 'black' when I hear the word 'urban', I think of a densely populated area which usually means higher than normal rates of crime. It's not like this is different everywhere else in the world.

THIS.

To me, "urban" is defined as packing people tightly like rats or sardines and then what do you know, crime is high. Has nothing to do with race, has everything to do with population density. And, perhaps, the whole rat thing where if you pack too many in the same area they go insane and start killing each other?

kmt11		2012-05-20 04:43:26 PM

I went to SC a while back. While the campus is relatively safe, a few blocks in any direction get very bad. In the two years I was there (for grad school) I saw multiple carjackings on Vermont, one on Jefferson and one on Exposition.

bhcompy		2012-05-20 04:44:02 PM

USC is in a shiathole. People who aren't from the area or understand how to deal with an area like that shouldn't attend the school, at all. If they want something nice in the area they should go to UCLA or CSULB, or go to one of the schools in San Diego, since San Diego is like Disneyland compared to south central.

SoCalSurfer		2012-05-20 04:45:37 PM

bhcompy: USC is in a shiathole. People who aren't from the area or understand how to deal with an area like that shouldn't attend the school, at all. If they want something nice in the area they should go to UCLA or CSULB, or go to one of the schools in San Diego, since San Diego is like Disneyland compared to south central.

Specifically an ethnically cleansed it's a small world ride...especially north county

rebelyell2006		2012-05-20 04:46:11 PM

RibbyK: AverageAmericanGuy: Democrats is little more than a whitewashed way to say "black" without letting your true racist colors show.

/Heard demos=black at a golf tourney in Chicago from a drunk Irishman.
//Attempting to offend as many as possible in one posting

Oh come on, what respectable golf course would let the Irish in?

bentleypm		2012-05-20 04:47:12 PM

Allen. The End. UW is right next to a series of crappy ghetto buildings. Students get robbed all the time, harassed by thuglets and shrieking negresses, but since Seattle is SO very PC, they can't put two and two together...

/shrieking negress would be a good band name...

I am sorry you got scared because you saw a brown person. However, UW is not near anything that could remotely be described as a high crime area. Please gain more life experience before opining on the interwebs.

Sincerely,

Humanity

AverageAmericanGuy		2012-05-20 04:47:22 PM

rebelyell2006: RibbyK: AverageAmericanGuy: Democrats is little more than a whitewashed way to say "black" without letting your true racist colors show.

/Heard demos=black at a golf tourney in Chicago from a drunk Irishman.
//Attempting to offend as many as possible in one posting

Oh come on, what respectable golf course would let the Irish in?

Maybe as a caddy.

IAmRight		2012-05-20 04:48:23 PM

In university literature, urban refers to exactly what urban is - it's a big city. It's used on their literature to show that they're in a place with a lot of sh*t going on outside of the school, which makes it attractive to students. It's not a damn code word and people who think they're using it as that clearly didn't even get basic promotional literature from any university.

kmt11		2012-05-20 04:48:44 PM

SoCalSurfer: bhcompy: USC is in a shiathole. People who aren't from the area or understand how to deal with an area like that shouldn't attend the school, at all. If they want something nice in the area they should go to UCLA or CSULB, or go to one of the schools in San Diego, since San Diego is like Disneyland compared to south central.

Specifically an ethnically cleansed it's a small world ride...especially north county

Hey, I'm from North County (inland), we had people of all races. I think we even had a black kid at my high school.