With fall semester in full swing and daylight savings time around the corner to darken the EC campus an hour early, students, especially females, should take extra precautions when walking around campus at night.
The current construction areas of campus offer some concerns about lighting, as well as the walking distance the parking lots seem to impose on students.
“It feels like a maze walking around campus to my classes during all this construction,” Raisa Quan, 23, English major, said. “It doesn’t help that my class lets out at 9 p.m, and I have to walk to the parking lot by myself, it gets pretty dark and is a long way.”
But what is surprising, is that some students don’t know about the programs available to them to ensure their safety around campus, and aren’t paying attention to their surroundings when walking at night.
“I didn’t know those white vans driving around were actually for the students,” Helen Lao, 18, art major, said. “I usually have my headphones listening to music or I’ll be talking on my phone while walking to my car.”
The EC Police Department has implemented various means to keep students safe during the evening hours. The police department offers the Campus Escort Shuttle to pick up faculty, visitors, and students from their location on campus to their cars in any of the parking lots. Students should call the ECPD Communications Center to arrange a pick up.
More information can be found on the EC website.
“I’ve taken the shuttle a few times when my friend isn’t around to walk with me, it really is convenient and I didn’t wait long for them to pick me up” Ashley Perez, 23, English major, said.
Students should walk in well lit areas and in groups of people they know, pay attention to their surroundings, and keep distractions to a minimum, such as talking on a cell phone, or listening to music through headphones, as well as knowing about the recent crime activities happening in the campus.
“The best prevention is to be aware,” Perez said. “It’s always better to be safe than sorry,”