As a campus that is constantly buzzing with events, sports games and more, it is important to feel a sense of safety and security with what over 30,000 of us call our home. One of our most important responsibilities as a student body, is to look out for one another. Featured below are five ways to keep you and your peers safe on your college campus. By working together and utilizing the resources that UNH has to offer, Wildcats can create a safe campus and experience an incredible 4 years.
1. Enroll in UNH Alert
If you haven’t already, enroll in UNH Alert! This is an alert system managed by The University Police Department that sends an alert to registered cell phones or email accounts. These messages may include curtailed operations, delays, warnings over danger on campus and more! Wildcats, this form of safety is right at your fingertips! Enroll today at alert.unh.edu. This is a critical step in ensuring safety for yourself, peers and campus as a whole.
2. Be aware of the campus’s blue lights
At UNH, our campus is equipped with a blue light system. The posts are strategically dispersed across campus so they are visible from any given location. This way students are given access to an immediate form of contact with campus police and security. If you ever feel threatened or unsafe, find a nearby blue light and press the button on the post. It is also encouraged that, should you find yourself in a situation where you cannot risk staying in one area, press the buttons of the following blue lights and the police will shortly arrive and handle the situation at hand.
3. Lock your door
I know this may bear some inconvenience on our lives. It isn’t always ideal coming back to our room after a long day and having to stop at the door in an effort to rummage through our bags and locate our key. BUT, this temporary inconvenience ultimately outweighs the potential threats that leaving your room unlocked can have. Dorm room burglaries are all too common, and you have an obligation to protect your own property. This is also respect for your roommate’s’ belongings as well. We also have those “friends” who think it’s okay to just barge into our room on their own time and schedule regardless of our wants and needs. This option provides you security and sanity.
4. Walk home with a friend (especially at night)
Regardless of your level of sobriety or confidence in self-defense, you should always try your best to walk home with a friend at hours of the night where necessary help isn’t readily visible. Experiencing late nights out having fun or studying in the library is a part of the college experience, and having a friend to walk home with should always be a precautionary and preemptive step in these endeavors. Unfortunately, unsettling things do and most likely will continue to occur on our campus. With an additional person around, an extra pair of legs is available to locate a nearby blue light, call 911 or make sure you make it back to your dorm instead of curling into a ball and falling asleep en route to your bed.
5. Watch out for your fellow Wildcats
Although staying safe on campus has a lot to do with your own personal well-being, it is equally as important to watch out for the safety of your fellow Wildcats. If you see a fellow peer in an unsafe situation or sense that they feel threatened, take action to make them know you are there to help. This could be displayed in a variety of ways, such as pressing a blue light when you see someone in danger who may not have walked home with another person, calling 911 when a fellow Wildcat is being threatened and proper handling of the situation is out of your control or texting a peer to make sure they got home safe.