Recently I have researched and written a few stories concerning crime and reports of stalking here on campus. There have been a few incidents in just the past few months already. After having seen how many incidents were happening recently, I decided to talk a little about campus safety from my perspective. After all, we are living in a world where people now dress up as clowns and walk around trying to scare people for whatever reason.

After reading the crime statistics report released by the Public Safety Department, it seems as though the amount of crimes being reported this year is higher in these few months than it has been for the whole year of 2013, 2014, and 2015. This made me wonder why. Is it because there weren’t as many crimes those years? Were people not reporting as many crimes those years? Or are these incidents that have been reported not considered crimes?

Either way, whether or not these crimes are founded or not, there is definitely an issue of safety here at BC.

As a reporter, I’m often here on campus at all hours of the day, running around interviewing people and taking pictures. Especially on production nights or nights where I’m shooting pictures for sports, I can end up being on campus pretty late. Usually if I have to come to campus late I will try to park close to wherever it is I’m going to be leaving from. Also, whenever I leave and walk to my car, I typically call someone and stay on the phone with them until I’m safe in my car.

If you ever find yourself walking to your car in the dark from anywhere, even if you think it’s not a long walk or dangerous, I would still recommend this. Even if it is really late at night, chances are whoever you call to stay on the phone with you will not mind being woken up for your safety. My default is usually one of my parents.

Also, if you have the chance to have someone walk with you to your car, you should. Everyone knows it is safer to travel in groups than by yourself. For one, there less risk that a stranger will approach a group. And on the off chance that a stranger does decide to approach you, you will have someone there to help you if anything were to happen.

My last piece of advice when leaving campus is, take your safety into your own hands and be smart. Ever since I’ve had to stay late on campus and heard about the problems happening, I decided I needed some way to help me protect myself while I’m here. I simply bought a dispenser of pepper spray and hooked it to my keychain. Whenever I’m walking to my car I make sure to keep that pepper spray in my hand ready to go, and my keys ready to unlock my car.

These are just a few ways to keep yourself safe while you’re here at BC. If you do have any feelings of uncertainty or feel unsafe, call campus security at once. You really can never be too careful.

If you have questions on balancing your busy schedule, send your questions to Veronica at 

[email protected]