Once upon a time I lived on campus. I was a freshman and never felt unsafe on campus. I was able to walk across campus and not think about if I was going to be raped or fighting with a roommate. No one ever kicked my door in and stole any of my belongings. I never worried while living on campus.
I whined about the roaches in Wheatley, but never had a problem with safety. Yes, occasionally someone would start a fire in Wheatley, but I considered that to be normal. Every now and then I would see a fight, but no one was stabbed or pulled out a gun. And before the fight could end in violence, the campus police were there breaking it up. Back then we had more police on campus.
What happened to the curfew and random dorm room checks? I remember having a curfew as a freshman. It sounds funny, but I was stopped by a GSU officer one night, and he told me I could be fined because it was after curfew. But he let me go with a warning.
Then, there were the dorm room checks in the middle of the night. I’m talking about 2 o’clock in the morning when I had class at eight in the morning. You never knew when the dorm parent and GSU police were going to knock on your door. And no, I’m not talking about the student RAs checking your room either.
We actually had older people in charge and not students. I guess that’s why I felt safe, because the dorm parents were my parents away from home.
The problem I have with the university is my tuition goes up every year and I still see only two call boxes (on the side of Carver and in front of the police station) on the whole campus. I’m not sure, but I don’t think the call box on the side of Carver even works.
In the spring during an interview with the police chief, he said they were working on improving campus safety. He also said that Housing, Facilities and GSUPD would hold campus safety seminars in the near future. That there would be more call boxes and tight security with the new dorms going up. And it was only last semester when several dorm robberies occurred.
I’m still waiting to see more call boxes on campus even though I have less than a month left before I graduate. What is it going to take to ensure students’ safety on campus?
The violence on campus is increasing every day, minute by minute. I paid my tuition and now I’m about to become an alumnus, and you want me to give back to the university? For what?