Underage drinking. This problem is one that Notre Dame works very hard to combat and makes statements about often. Of course drinking alcohol can be dangerous – especially when you don’t know your limits. Maybe you don’t like drinking but drink because you feel pressured to do so. Maybe you do enjoy drinking, but you like to have enough alcohol to “black out.” These are things that shouldn’t have to happen. Trips to the hospital should not have to happen. Yes, underage drinking can be a problem and should be addressed, but I think Notre Dame should be focusing on more pressing issues.
After Saturday’s game versus UNC, a shooting occurred just blocks away from the Golden Dome on Notre Dame Avenue. South Bend is a city, and like any city, there are shootings and other various crimes. However, these crimes should not affect student life the way it seems they will continue to. I have yet to hear a University statement on the matter, although the Observer mentioned that the Student Senate discussed the incident at their most recent meeting.
Although it seems that “this will never happen to me” and I could never imagine such a crime affecting anyone I know, that shooting was three blocks from the house I was in at the time. Had I decided to walk to a different house, I could have been on the very same street or run into the people who had the gun. My friend had actually walked that way a couple hours earlier that night, thinking he would be fine, that it was only a two-block walk.
This type of crime hasn’t affected many students at Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s, or Holy Cross before, but given the recent crime reports, it is actually scary to be off campus this semester. Just this past week, at a friend’s house, a man was pounding on the door and would not leave. We did not know him, but when we opened the door, he asked to come in. We immediately shut and locked the door until he went away. Later we found out that the same man had been at the house less than a week earlier.
We need our administration to step up and address the safety of students off campus. There are other important issues, yes, but feeling unsafe when leaving campus is not fair. Yes, it is a risk to move into South Bend, but being less than a mile from campus should not be scary. There needs to be a discussion about how to make student life safer and more comfortable in South Bend. Maybe the South Bend police and other local organizations can work with Notre Dame to make student housing safer. Maybe there could be a neighborhood watch put into place. With so many upperclassmen living in locations other than dorms, there is a great need for improved security help.
Regardless of how the University addresses this safety issue, it will not be solved immediately. In the meantime, University officials should at least make a statement about the shooting and make an attempt to calm students’ nerves about off campus crime, rather than always focusing on other, less life-threatening, issues. We have a right to feel safe at home, whether home is on campus of off campus.
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