Page 38 - Campus Security & Life Safety, March/April 2022

Students Fear Walking Alone at Night
Here’s a Bright Idea to Fix It
By Steve Reinharz
Advanced Technology
Colleges love to hype the security of their campuses. During tours for prospective students and their par- ents, guides proudly point out surveillance cameras and “blue light” towers, and they explain the intri- cacies of their buildings’ access control systems. Those technologies seem reassuring in the light of day, when shown to visitors. However, once students begin life as freshmen, they experience a new reality: the need to get around campus on foot after dark. Sud- denly, all that technology doesn’t do much to make them feel safe.
A vast majority of female students are fearful of walking alone at night. Many male students are, too, although they may be less likely to admit it. Most schools offer some form of safety escort services. Students can call or text a number, and a security officer or trained
volunteer will meet up with and accompany them to their car, dorm, or other destination. It’s a solid concept but difficult to execute at any scale. Some services cut off too early for the study schedules of stu- dent night owls, and wait times for an escort can be lengthy.
As an alternative, students will often use their phones as virtual chap- erones to talk or video-chat with friends as they walk alone at night. This may make them feel safer, but experts warn that talking while walking can be distracting and create a false sense of security. To a perpetrator, someone focused on their phone may appear to be unaware of their sur- roundings and inadvertently make himself a more desirable target.
Poorly lit areas are the scariest, but student complaints about insuffi- cient lighting often fall on deaf ears. For example, at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, a 2018 student-organized petition titled “Bright
38 campuslifesecurity.com | MARCH/APRIL 2022