Campus Safety

After the tragedies that occurred on the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois campuses, safety in our colleges and universities is a reasonable topic for conversation. As I begin the college process, the issue of security has come up more than once.

Just for the record, I am a student who is planning on playing field hockey in college- therefore, all of my visits have been planned by the coaching staff at a particular school.

The first school I visited this winter was Lafayette. A small liberal arts school just over the NJ-PA border on the outskirts of Easton, PA, Lafayette is confined to "College Hill," which looks like a university setting out of a movie. The quad is bordered by its library and other academic buildings, with dorms and off campus housing just a few minutes walk away from it.

My visit to Lafayette seemed to be incredibly safe. On the Friday night I stayed with one of the hockey players. When walking to a pizza parlor right off campus, a police car rolled past, patrolling the area. I asked about the security on campus briefly; the girls told me they felt extremely safe and were not worried about it - I can honestly take their word, because it seemed they didn't hide anything from me.

Next, I visited the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. This visit was after the Northern Illinois University shootings, so security was on all of the parents' minds if not the student-athletes.

My visit to Penn was in the form of a Junior Day, which is a gathering of the junior-year recruits in order to meet and greet with the coach and team, learn about the school and tour the campus. If you are unaware, Penn is very close to a very unfavorable section of Philadelphia- my Dad and I drove through it, just to see the entire picture of this Ivy.

However, the hockey players made it clear that they had always felt safe during their years at Penn. They explained there were university security available at every time of the day, including the most obscure night hours, just in case you feel you need someone to walk you home. They ensured us that by the time the sun is down, there is a security guard at every corner.

It was interesting to contrast the security issue at Penn vs. Lafayette. Penn is much bigger than Lafayette, both in student population and campus size. Security was much more of a discussed issue at the Ivy than at the Patriot league school.

Finally, the last of my visits for right now, was to the University of Massachusetts. UMass is a HUGE school! It is snowy and cold and HUGE! Again, I visited UMass in a Junior Day setting.

The discussion on safety and security on campus came when the recruits toured the expansive university. Unlike Penn, UMass is not a city school. But the characteristics it lacks in location, it makes up for in size. Therefore, the University is covered with these yellow boxes that encase a telephone, just in case of an emergency.

This was the only campus in which I saw a university police station. The station was located right outside the site of the majority of freshmen dorms, probably not a bad idea in such a huge school. The student-athletes at UMass ensured us that they, like the players at Lafayette and
Penn, felt completely safe on their campus.

So, it seems as though the major consensus on many American campuses, if they are like the ones mentioned above, is the students feel safe. What we as journalists have to ask is, why are events like the VA Tech and Northern Illinois occurring?




Watch those news stations tonight- Hillary may be done for 2008 ...