Keeping your Student Safe: Campus Safety Tips

While your student is away at school, the last thing a parent wants or needs to worry about is the safety of their student. Read this article to view our safety tips.

It is important to remember that colleges and universities are generally safe places. However, because campuses are safer, it can lead to students often letting down their guard. Therefore, the bottom line is that there is no substitute for personal vigilance when it comes to campus safety and parents and students should do their own research.

With your student, review the campus safety tips below and how they apply to their surroundings.

On Campus

• Determine where emergency phones are located around campus.
• Assess the campus after dark to see that buildings, walkways, quadrangles and parking lots have good lighting and they are adequately secured and patrolled.
• Your student should avoid walking alone at night and they should walk in well-lit areas.
• Students should walk with their hands free, and have their keys ready.

In the dorms

• Doors and windows to their residence hall should be equipped with quality locks. Room doors should have peepholes and deadbolts.
• Instruct them not to loan out their key and don’t leave the door unlocked for a roommate or friend.
• Replace locks when a key is lost or stolen.
• They should Use caution admitting strangers.
• If your student is a female and lives alone or with other females, advise them to use only their first initials on their mailbox and in phone directories.
• They should always report suspicious activity to campus police—or to the police if they live off-campus.

If you or your student is still unsure about the safety on campus, you can request information from the college. The college is legally mandated to provide this information. For additional information, the Department of Education compiles and makes available campus safety statistics by reporting criminal offenses for over 6,000 colleges and universities in the United States at the following Web site: http://ope.ed.gov/security/.

Sources:
www.collegeview.com/articles/CV/campuslife/conversation.html
www.ecampustours.com/campuslife/healthandsafety/