Davidabb84

I was just thinking about this because we had "Safety Day."

I feel pretty safe. It's not a high crime area. They post crime logs on the website, 99% of them are for marijuana possession or underage drinking. It is kind of a party school, but you don't hear a lot about robberies or anything like that. We also have 3 police forces (university, city, and sheriff's office) on campus. They also have emergency phones.

I know someone who goes to a school that's similar to mine (medium-sized public, party-school reputation) except in a much larger city. She has said that apparently they have problems with muggings and other crime on campus.

What about you? How safe do you feel on your campus. What about the surrounding neighborhood?

romanigypsyeyes

I can honestly say that I've never felt unsafe on campus or in the surrounding neighborhood.

I do feel unsafe in the neighboring large city when I work an afternoon shift. I hate leaving the shelter where I work at midnight

icedragon

Sure. The only thing that i have a small problem with is the bears and mountain lions, but what are ya going to do about that? The uni is right next to a massive hilly mountainous area.


Its all good.

CalDud

Generally if I'm driving in a vehicle I'll feel safe. Walking around at dark is some bad juju, tho.

musicallylatin

Ha ha. My campus is small. It helps a lot with the safety feelings. On campus, regardless of the time, you can call security to escort you where you need to be, regardless of the time. I've had no reasons to ever test it out, but it's nice to know it's an option. Plus, where I live there is low crime and the likes.

SillyStokey92

I always feel pretty safe on campus. Occasionally we hear about things being stolen from dorms, but it's no big deal really. Usually people that are dumb enough to leave their doors open all night get laptops stolen. Apart from that, the usual police beat is mostly underage drinking.

Now, would I walk around the immediate area of Winston-Salem at night. Absolutely not. In a car, fine. On foot, hell no.

JeSuis

Now that Lieutenant Pike had been fired, yes. (the pepper spray cop)

Sparkles21

I've never personally had a problem, but the area next to the north side my campus isn't the best one. I live on the south side of campus, near a very nice suburban area, but walking around at night by yourself is never a good idea. I always try to walk in a group of 4 people or more when I'm out late at night. Whenever there is an 'incident' on campus, we get emails from the police lieutenant. Usually it's about a mugging that occurs on the north side of campus or a warning of something that happened just off campus.

Thereisnosecret

On the campuses where concealed carry is allowed, such as at 30 campuses in Utah, at Colorado State University, and at Blue Ridge Community College in VA there hasn't been a single incident of gun violence. Compare that to Virginia Tech and other colleges were gun violence has occurred.

This excerpt from students for concealed carry sums up my opinion: (no links allowed)

An unsigned editorial in the Winfield Daily Courier criticizes a Kansas concealed carry bill as being “cynical,” and ” nothing but a vehicle for raising a wedge issue for zealous Second Amendment supporters in this year’s elections.” There are a number of problems with this theory, but the substance is even more troubling.

In several states, legislation has been introduced which would require government facilities, including state-run colleges, to either allow concealed carry, or equip the facilities with metal detectors and gun storage lockers to ensure these “gun-free” zones are actually gun-free. What’s cynical about that? Anti-gun groups, and the editors at the Winfield Daily Courier, are trying to paint these requirements as extreme. They claim it will cost universities millions of dollars to comply, conveniently ignoring the free option—allowing responsible, law-abiding, licensed gun owners the same measure of personal protection they currently enjoy virtually everywhere else.

In the haze of bickering and misinformation, it is easy to lose sight of the inconvenient truth: the staunch opposition to this measure is a tacit admission that these locations currently have no method of ensuring the so-called “gun-free” zones are actually gun-free. What is cynical about making college campuses live up to the standard they profess to hold? It is truly cynical for college administrators to insist they have a right to ban self-defense on campus without taking adequate measures to ensure student safety. It is truly cynical for administrators to disarm law-abiding citizens when they know and willingly admit that criminals could bring virtually any weapon onto their campus without detection.

Originally published as “What’s Cynical About Making Colleges Accept Reality?” on Soderstrome.com

prezbucky

in maybe my second month on campus at UW-Madison, I came down with a middle ear infection.

It became unbearable in the middle of the night.

I walked (dumb@$$) from Sellery Hall to the UW Hospital... must have been a couple (at least...) miles.

I was fine.

That did a lot to curb my fear of the semi-urban environment. (i had grown up in touristy northern Wisconsin -- lakes and trees and very little concrete. Northeasterners, imagine Maine)

After that I made many a long hike -- at all times of day, alone or not -- and had no issues.

Once I almost got into an altercation, but it would have been largely my own doing. hehe


That said, there was an injury-causing fight in or around my dorm on my very first night on campus. Apparently someone's nose was broken, and the perpetrator went to jail. For the night at least. That was my only *personal/word of mouth* experience with (likely) prosecuted crime on the UW campus. Believe it... or not.

TomServo

There have been armed robberies *on campus* at my school, including one inside a campus building in the middle of the day. There have also been beatings and attempted rapes and muggings. If I'm walking or biking home at night, I go along the main road where it is well lit and there are more people. I've had a bike stolen, so I don't buy cable locks anymore and I never leave my bike locked up in any one place for more than a few hours when on campus.

Davidabb84

If your campus has a crime log, it's really fun to read when you're bored.

Crime Log | University Police | Appalachian State University

We just had our first home football game, so I'm looking forward to the next update.

Also, TomServo and Sparkles, are you both from Ohio State? I'm noticing your locations. I used to live in Ohio and never thought of OSU as being unsafe.

marcdvl

http://i.imgur.com/BvzJ4.png

Stupid criminals

Davidabb84

Lesson: Get a manual and learn how to drive it. People are less likely to be able to steal it. Worked for me so far.

Although part of it might be that no one wants to take a 20 year old car.

At the game, I saw an altercation of some sort, and then saw one of the guys involved bleeding out of his nose into a trashcan while 2 police officers held him by the arm. My guess is he's going to appear in the crime log.

AUGirl

During the day, I feel pretty safe. At night, I try to never walk alone.

There was a shooting about a block from my dorm last year. Robberies and muggings happen all the time. Just the other day, I got a Carolina Alert that there was a "strong arm robbery" a block from my dorm. There was a shooting a couple of weeks ago at one of the popular student apartment complexes.

They always send out a description... but the description is usually the same and very ...not helpful. It usually runs along the lines of "Black Male. 6'0. Dreads. Last seen wearing a white shirt" And you're just kind of like... Okay. That's *super* helpful. Not.

I have friends who have been robbed both on and off campus. There was a kid who got beaten within an inch of his life in Five Points (five minutes from campus... it's a place full of restaurants and bars).

If I'm with guy friends, they always offer to walk me and my girl friends back to our dorms. If I'm with girl friends, we make sure to walk everyone back to their dorm. It's just the way it is.