In the wake of recent tragedy, community members came together to discuss ideas for improving Isla Vista safety.

UCSB‘s Associated Student Public Safety Commission hosted a safety forum on Thursday night in the IV Theater in the hopes of deterring anymore Isla Vista violence. Hundreds responded to the groups Facebook event, but fewer than 50 attended the meeting.

UCSB Freshman Robert Stosick was shocked by the events of the past weekend and came to the forum to share his ideas for improving safety.

“I think it’s best that we be prepared,” he said, “One thing that I’d like to see is Isla Vista have a warning siren installed. Our town is pretty small, if we put a warning siren in the center, anyone should be able to hear it.”

Stosick said he didn’t receive any text message warning from the UCSB emergency system until nearly an hour after the shooting took place, and thinks the siren would inform everyone in IV to stay indoors much more efficiently.

“We’ve had warnings in the past when a guy made a lewd gesture, and here when we have a guy that hurts 20 people we don’t get a warning about this until much too late after the fact,” he said.

Many participants also noted that they would like to see IV turned into a Community Service District, meaning it would be less than a city but would gain some forms of community self-governance. They pointed out that this would speed up the process of acquiring more safety measures.

Nearly 7,000 City College students reside in Isla Vista and Commission leader Molly Morrison believes it is up to all the members of the community, not just UCSB students, to force change.

“We’re here because we’re the residents, we’re the ones who get to make the government. There are a lot of different demographics, there is the City College population, there is the families who live here. We are the residents, and we have the power,” she said.

Morrison plans to compile all the safety ideas and present them to UCSB Chancellor Yang in the hopes of beginning the process to create change.

More safety meetings will be held in the coming weeks and attendance information can be found by visiting the Safety Commission official Facebook page here.