Picture this, you are walking home after your last class of the day. You are exhausted and the only things you can think of are ramen, Netflix, and your bed. As you slowly become more aware of your surroundings you realize that the sky is black, there is nobody around, you are at least ten minutes away from your dorm, and you feel scared and uncomfortable. What do you do? First, before leaving your class, find a buddy to walk with you. Groups are always better than one and not only will you be accompanied, but you will also have better odds of reaching your dorm safely. The buddy system is a great way for you to not only feel secure and comfortable walking on campus, but it is also a great way to meet new people and make new friends. Another thing that you can do in order to live a safer campus life is to figure out where all the emergency call boxes are as well as knowing the phone number to the campus police. Most campus police officers will escort students back to their dorm or car if they feel unsafe or uncomfortable walking back late at night. The emergency call boxes are also an asset to students because if you were having a problem, that box sends a direct line to the campus officers and they will be able to hear what is going on. However, campus police can only help you if they are aware of what is going on. By familiarizing yourself with those locations and the phone number, if you ever need to get in touch with a campus officer, you will be more than prepared. Now that you have gotten comfortable with the locations of the emergency boxes and the campus police phone number, you and your friend are walking back to your dorm after your last night class. You two are socializing and feeling better about walking back to your rooms since another person is with you. As you are walking, you both notice another student being followed and harassed. What do you do? First, you need to evaluate the situation. If it looks like you and your friend could safely diffuse the situation, then approach the confrontation carefully and try to help. If it looks like the situation could escalate at any given moment and intervene would be putting you, your friend, and the victim’s safety at risk, try to find an authoritative figure to intervene. Be prepared to call campus police if need be. The most important thing to remember while being on campus is that if you see something, say something. The goal for any university is to keep all students safe and comfortable enough so that if there is a problem, you do not feel stressed out when reporting it. Students and faculty must work
together to create a safe environment for everyone. The first step to having a more secure campus community is being able to communicate with each other about safety concerns, ways to improve safety both on campus and within the community as well. So the next time you see someone walking alone after their night class, go up and introduce yourself so one less student feels unsafe and uncomfortable on campus.