College Safety
Campus safety is a concern for both parents and college students. Taking precautions and learning safety tips is a must for all college students. Whether you live and work on-campus or off-campus you and your parents will want you to adhere to some safety guidelines. According to CollegeXpress, college campuses are on average safer than the city or town in which we live.
College Safety On-Campus
Your safety is your number one priority; keeping yourself safe is a personal responsibility. Here are a few tips to help aid in your cautions.
Familiarize Your Campus
Know where your schedule will take you daily. Know where you are going and a good time frame as to how late you will be leaving. Know where your campus safety office and campus police are located.
Find out if your college’s safety campus offers programs such as emergency phone stations, police escort service, safety maps with suggested security routes or even a campus safety app like CampusSafe, Circle of 6 and EmergenSee.
There are about 10 apps that are making campuses safer. In addition to your safety, CampusSafe lets you report minor incidents to police through texting forms. It picks up your GPS location, identity and contact information and will start on over the phone conversation with you.
Circle of 6 is an app that you choose 6 friends and input their contact information. Once opened this app picks up your GPS location and sends a pre-written text to your 6 contacts giving them instructions on how to interrupt the unsafe situation. It will even call 911 if you need.
EmergenSee app works with a Geo-fencing set up. Several campuses have adopted this app for the protection of their students. Students only need to tap the app in order to signal campus police.
Extra Nightly Precautions
Please don’t scare yourself into believing that danger is hanging out around every corner and in every nook and cranny. Security comes in numbers, so please don’t be out walking alone during the darker hours.
If you find yourself having to walk alone, this is where you could utilize the campus police escort service or have a handy safety app downloaded on your phone such as SafeTrek. SafeTrek aka Noonlight: Feel Protected 24/7 has a 4.6-star review and was developed for college students. The app is easy to operate, you just open the app, press and hold down the safe button, once you are safe you can release the button and enter your pin. When you release the safe button, but you don’t enter your pin, or you find yourself in an unsafe situation then the app will notify your local police of your location. Stay in well-lit areas. If you find yourself walking down a dark path, please reconsider.
Technology
Keep your eyes open to your surroundings. Stay off your phone or any other type of technology while walking to and from your destination. We tend to become absorbed in our phone on our apps, games and social media pages so much so that we forget where we are. Take notice of your surroundings and make sure that you always remain safe.
Lock Doors & Windows
Always lock your doors and windows, whether you are at home or leaving for the day. This will ensure that your valuables are safe too. You may want to purchase a small safe or a home security system just to be more on the safe side.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve doubled back to check and make sure that I have locked my car doors. You may even want to keep your car doors locked until you have physically touched your car. Even when you get into your vehicle, lock your doors as soon as you shut your door.
Social Media Privacy
It’s very common these days to tell people nearly everything that we are doing with our lives. People posts pictures of food, fun and trips. We want all our peeps to know that we are living life to the fullest, the best life possible.
However, this also lets the not so grand peeps know that you aren’t home and when you’re not home your belongings are left all alone. You may even want to turn off your location services and make your account private. Have you ever seen on the infamous social media profile page where it tells you that a friend is nearby? Scary, huh!
Buddy System
Let someone know where you are, especially if you know you’ll be out and about at a late hour. That someone can be your roommate, your significant other, your parent or even someone you work with.
Do go party with a friend, not alone and make sure that one of you stays sober to ensure that you get home safe and sound.
Understand Your Surroundings
Go on-line and google your city’s crime stats. Know the potential ‘bad’ locations and avoid them as much as possible. Make sure you have plenty of gas to get to where you are going; avoid having to pull over or stalling on a busy interstate.
Self-Defense
Have you ever thought about taking a self-defense class? This may be a good time to do so. You’re all grown up and flying the coop, so now’s a good time to take responsibility. Lots of colleges offer these classes on campus because they do care about the safety of their students. Colleges strive to keep their campus and students safe.
You may even want to carry a small whistle that you can attach to your key chain, just in case you panic and can’t scream you have some way to express that you need help. Or how about a personal size can of pepper spray, it’s small enough to hang nicely on any keychain.
If you are ever in an area that you are unfamiliar with, keep your earbuds out as your hearing can alert you to someone coming up behind you.
Safety Supplies
Danger doesn’t always come in the form of a predator. Think about it, you come out of class and the sky has dropped inches of snow. You get to your car and it won’t start. What do you do now? Thankfully, you have a charged cell phone and call your immediate family. You also have thrown a blanket and some warming sticks in the trunk, so you get those out and make yourself as cozy and as warm as you can until help arrives.
You may want to ask your parents if they have a $20 bill folded up and stashed somewhere in their wallet or car. Keep a hidden cash stash for those emergency times, like when you pull up at a gas station knowing that you are driving on fumes and suddenly remember that you have forgotten your purse or wallet. Don’t worry, you’ve got that cash stashed in your glove box, right? It happens to all of us!
Conceal and Carry
Know whether your college campus allows students to carry their concealed guns along with a permit. No one wants to shoot anyone and I’m not saying that you ever will. However, some people do believe that it is okay to carry a concealed weapon and they do carry one.
Pedestrians
If you live on-campus and walk or ride a bicycle to and from class, then make sure you are paying attention to the pedestrian crosswalks and rules. A lot of times pedestrians are preoccupied with headphones on listening to music, especially joggers. You will also want to pay close attention to them as a driver as well.
Party Go-er
When we’re out and about having fun, we tend to have a false sense of security. We don’t tend to think that something bad is going to happen or that it could happen.
This is when we need to be super cautious because somebody might be lurking in the dark depths watching us, it’ll only take a hot moment for them to notice that we’ve let our guard down.
By all means, be prepared, take precautions, and stay aware! Follow your gut intuition, listen to the niggling sensation that you get when you are somewhere you shouldn’t be, trust your instincts and leave any situation that makes you feel uncomfortable. We certainly hope that no one directly puts themselves in danger.