School safety is not something that every student thinks about.
You have probably seen the security guards sitting in the various parking lots in their cars, or even up in the campus security office around the corner from the cafeteria. But have you ever really stopped to consider how safe our campus really is, especially during the evening while night classes are being held? Probably not.
However, campus security and your safety is a topic that that students should become more and more aware of.
The Skyline View feels that security needs to be increased on campus, particularly at night in the various parking lots and paths students must walk along where light is scarce.
Imagine having to walk down all five flights of stairs by yourself in the pitch dark to walk from parking lot four to your evening classes. The path is not well-lit, and the dark trees seem to move in closer to you with every passing second.
Something in the trees makes a rustling noise, and their shadows almost appears to take the form of a human. Of course the first thing running through your mind is trying to stay calm, and find the nearest person with whom to seek refuge.
But what happens if there is no one else around? What will happen then?
If you are a woman, we’re sure that this situation may seem intimidating to you.
While The View acknowledges the fact that there cannot be security officers patrolling every corner of the campus at any given time of the day, we feel that two things should be done in order to help this arising problem:
1) Increase security in certain areas at night. These areas include the staircase leading to parking lot four, lot four itself, and other smaller parts of the campus where the concentration of light and/or people is considerably lower than others.
2) Add more lights to the darker areas on campus. By adding light, it will not only make it easier for people to walk to and from their cars to class, but it will help discourage possible crimes from occurring.
But having these two suggestions go into play does not mean that all of our problems will magically be solved. Students must also take precautions themselves, like bringing flashlights with us when we have to walk through particularly dark areas to and from our night classes.
Or it might include walking with one or more people to your car. Perhaps you might want to keep your cell phone close at hand so that if anything out of the ordinary does happen, you could make a quick call to 911 or the campus security office so help can be sent as soon as possible.
If we as Skyline students learn to work together with campus security, we can help ensure that our sense of safety will improve while on campus.
As soon as we begin making some key changes, the sooner we will begin seeing results.