How to Stay Safe at School

Most college campuses seem far too idyllic to play host to crime. But they do, for a number of reasons.

The demographic group most likely to commit or be victimized by crime in the United States is the mass of people who range in age from 18 to 25. About 80 percent of campus crimes are “student-on-student.” On most campuses excitable young people live in close, cramped quarters. In on-campus housing, students have easy access to one another’s’ rooms and belongings. Plus, students often indulge in excessive alcohol or drug use.

The result: Every year dozens of students are murdered on-campus. Thousands are victims of on-campus rapes, assaults, burglaries and thefts. You might not know it because college administrators are anxious to keep news of crime quiet lest it disturb students’ and parents’ notions of campuses as pristine outposts of intellectual purity and good, clean fun.

But once you know the truth, what can you do to protect yourself?

Here are some ideas from the experts:

# Freshmen, especially women, should “respectfully decline” to have their photos taken and personal information published for distribution to the campus community. Fraternities and other groups of upperclassmen have been known to use “facebooks” to target and abuse naive freshmen.

# Study your campus and its immediate neighborhood so that you know a few different routes between your dorm and your classrooms. Know where campus emergency phones are as well.

# Share your schedule with some close friends and your parents. If you don’t show up when you should, you should have at least a few people who will know to be worried. And give your parents the phone numbers of a few of your friends so that they can ask around if you don’t show up. (Assume that they will treat these numbers responsibly and won’t abuse them.)

# After dark, always walk with friends or ride a campus shuttle. If you have to walk alone at night, use only well-lit main routes, never short-cuts through back alleys and entrances.

# If your campus isn’t well-lit enough at night, complain. You’re paying a lot in tuition and your college has a responsibility to keep you safe.

# Always avoid drunk or high people, in groups or alone. Even if you know them, you never can tell what they might do in a chemically-altered state.

# Always lock your doors and windows at night. You shouldn’t have to compromise your safety to make life convenient for an irresponsible roommate who has lost his or her keys.

# Program your phone’s speed dial with emergency numbers, including campus police, your parents, and some nearby friends.

# If you lose your keys, make sure the lock to your dorm room is changed.

# If an entrance to your dormitory is propped open, close it. Your dormmates don’t have the right to be lazy when their friends come over.

# If you live off-campus you should contact your student legal aid representative to draft a lease which stipulates minimum standards of security and responsibility. Students and parents should also consult local police or a “Neighborhood Watch” association to learn about crime rates.

# Read your school’s annual campus crime reports, and watch for coverage of campus crime in the school newspaper.

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