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Some students are worried about safety after the former student is killed outside his old residence hall
By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
St. Petersburg Times
Published February 11, 2006
TAMPA - Ronald Stem loved to teach.
In November 2003, the 57-year-old Army veteran-turned-college student showed off his model trains in the meeting room of his University of South Florida residence hall and proudly fielded questions from younger students about his favorite hobby.
He won an award from a national residence hall association that month for his commitment to campus life.
But his studies ceased in 2004 when Stem's tuition got too expensive. He put his pursuit of a graduate degree in secondary education on hold and got a job carving furniture out of wood in a shop 10 minutes from campus. From the adjacent efficiency he shared with two tiny cats, he dreamed of returning to school.
Stem was shot dead in the parking lot of his old residence hall, Magnolia Apartments, just before midnight Thursday. USF police say he was leaving a friend's apartment on foot when he was shot in the upper body.
Three men zoomed off. Police got conflicting descriptions of the getaway vehicle. They did not release a motive.
Friday night, police released photographs and a four-second video taken from a security camera above USF parking lot 47. USF police Sgt. Mike Klingebiel said the videotape shows three individuals running across the parking lot after the shooting. It does not capture any of the actual crime. Stem's friend, Bonnie Moyer, said Stem had no enemies. She described him as sensitive and kind.
"He wouldn't hurt a fly," Moyer said.
Stem amused Moyer in long phone conversations every day with his uncanny knowledge of history. If she named an event, he could give her the date. If she named a song or a composer, he'd hum her a tune.
They met at Stem's brother Frederick's funeral in their native New Jersey in December. Moyer once dated Stem's brother and promised to keep in touch with Ronald Stem via telephone since he lived apart from the rest of his family. She would have picked him up from the airport today, when he was expected to fly into Milford for a high school reunion.
Thursday night at 8, Stem told Moyer he was headed to the grocery store to buy bananas for breakfast the following morning. He promised her he'd call before midnight to let her know he got home safe. He never called.
"I said, "I get worried about you walking around later in the evening when it's dark.' He said "Bonnie, it's okay around here. It's no big deal,"' Moyer said.
Some USF students had doubts about safety after they saw Stem's body covered in a white sheet from behind yellow police tape outside their apartments Thursday night.
"I don't think I'm going to walk alone at night," said junior Matthew Roach, who lives in Magnolia. "My friends are kind of rethinking living on campus. I didn't think this would happen over here. Magnolia is, like, the most expensive place to live in."
His friend Jeanna Merriken, a freshman, recalled the November double-shooting and December stabbing at a nearby McDonald's. Students have come to think of violent crime as something that happens off campus.
"It's really not like that on campus. It's around campus, but it's never on campus. Now it's on campus, so that's kind of scary," Merriken said.
Klingebiel said Stem's death was the first on-campus homicide since 1994, when a young woman was shot in a domestic dispute after a concert in the Special Events Center.
USF and Tampa police presence was stepped up Friday, and a handful of concerned parents who called the school were assured the students were safe.
"You have entrusted your student to us, and we take that responsibility very seriously," parents were told in a USF statement. "Security and safety of our university community is a primary concern at USF. President (Judy) Genshaft and the leadership team are working to ensure that USF remains a safe learning environment."
On-campus crimes are, for the most part, nonviolent on the 35,000-student Tampa campus. Klingebiel said. But apart from the usual underage drinkers and car thefts, there were 15 violent crimes in 2004, including one rape, four robberies and 10 aggravated assaults. In 2005, there were two forcible rapes, two robberies, and 15 aggravated assaults. On-campus violent crimes are usually against acquaintances, and not random acts, Klingebiel said.
To report information about Stem's death, call USF police at (813) 974-2628 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-873-8477.
--Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report. Alexandra Zayas can be reached at 813 226-3354 or at azayas@sptimes.com
[Last modified February 11, 2006, 01:14:11]