By: Amelia-Rose Williams
Feeling safe as a student while on campus is a pivotal point of contention for incoming students. When you are looking to attend a university, there are a few things of importance to look out for: safety, location and cost. I’m currently a sophomore, and while I was a freshman, planning my first full year at St. John’s was nerve-wracking for me. Being away from home for a full year sounded so obscure to me. I was afraid of making friends, what classes were going to be like, but what took the highest precedence was my safety. The importance of my safety on campus wasn’t just a concern for me, but also for my family members.
Although St. John’s is primarily a commuter school, just in this past semester alone, we’ve had a bomb threat, a fellow Johnnie had passed, & an incident I experienced with some of my peers where a kid was wandering the halls who wasn’t enrolled here. Concerned parents, as well as incoming students, are going to ask questions, research and spend as much time as possible mapping out if St. John’s is the best school for them. However, for me personally, I can say confidently, I’m a bit displeased with how our campus has dealt with these incidents, and I believe that our Public Safety team needs to do more to keep us safe!
Something I had noticed last year was that during routine fire drills, students were unable to hear when the fire alarm was going off for evacuation drills in several buildings on campus. Such as our beloved Marillac Hall, as well as St. John’s Hall, one of the oldest buildings on campus. I have observed that this is due to the lack of fire alarms placed in classrooms within these buildings. So, god forbid there is a real fire, and it is not just a drill, what are we supposed to do when we are unable to hear the alarms going off for us to evacuate? Students have literally had to enter classrooms I’ve been in to tell our class to evacuate because we couldn’t hear the fire alarms going off.Â
St. John’s is a very open campus; meaning anyone can walk on campus, and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between if they were a student, professor or a worker. This is a major red flag; security needs to be a lot tighter. Just last week, during a short bathroom break, I noticed what I thought appeared to be a student wandering the fourth floor of Marillac, blasting music and looking into classrooms. Upon further investigation, I found out from a friend that he shows up to campus everyday early-morning, and does the same thing over and over again. When questioned by fellow students and professors, he shows signs of an inability to communicate. The question is, how was he able to get on campus in the first place if he is not enrolled here? Also, why hadn’t Public Safety recognized this and escorted him out sooner?
Last year, I was faced with a personal incident that required more attention from Public Safety; however, due to an encounter I had with them prior to that incident occurring, I never trusted them to handle it. Since then, I’ve had no choice but to approach them about two other issues. When I went to them for help, I was faced with an attitude and a refusal to even assist me in another situation, which simply involved me getting off campus because they had locked the gates. I called them requesting guidance while they parked outside of the gate, acknowledged my dilemma while I was on the phone with them, drove off and was told I had to figure it out. Now tell me why I would trust them to deal with a more serious situation, such as an assault involving another student, when they couldn’t help with a matter of assisting me with mapping out a path to navigate and find a way off campus? Since then, my only solution has been to return to therapy as a means to resolve my trauma.Â
Unfortunately, we live in a world where our safety isn’t guaranteed, even just to go out and run an errand. You have to have eyes in the back of your head, especially in a huge city like New York, where acts of violence happen almost every day. Parents are going to research party life, the area in which the University is located and any other relevant information that may be useful in their findings regarding their child’s safety. Everyone can agree that the last thing you would want to happen is to put someone that you love in a situation that could put their safety at risk. It’s important that our campus does more to tighten security measures to keep us safe. Individuals who could potentially pose a risk to our safety should not be allowed to think twice about putting our lives in danger; more needs to be done to protect us, Johnnies.