For those who may not know, just this year there have been three separate assaults at EC.

Campus safety is a hot issue right now due to the attempted assault that occurred last Friday around 6:45 p.m.

News vans and milling reporters are searching for their next interview victim.

Students attending late classes walk anxiously and sweep the area for potential muggers or rapists. Male students walk quickly, eyes averted, bodies tense, lest someone target them as a potential attacker.

This kind of environment is not conducive to a learning experience.

There is nothing much that students can do other than ride it out.

The school as an institution is taking the necessary precautions to help put us at ease.

As far as the police are concerned, campus police patrols have increased in the back parking structure and they are still maintaining the increased patrols in the women’s locker room in the PE area since the sexual assault there in May.

Two police cadets and one sergeant arrive at 7 a.m. and they work until 7 p.m.

At 10 a.m., two more officers arrive and they work until 10 p.m. and at 11 a.m. the second sergeant arrives and works until 9 p.m.

The officer night shift begins at 7 p.m. and two officers work until 7 a.m.

The nine new surveillance cameras and special emergency phones are not monitored full time because they are located in the police dispatch center where the dispatchers are attending to other things like talking to people who walk in, paperwork and answering phones.

“The dispatchers try to monitor the cameras whenever they can, but there is no one to watch them full time,” Sgt. Jonathan Ott said.

The new parking structure currently being built blocks full view of Lot F and creates a dark atmosphere where nefarious behaviors can go unobserved.

The structure is lonely and not many people are around in that area, in addition, the parking structure is located right next to Alondra Park, which is super scary at night.

Ott said that campus police are soon going to have a substation located in Lot F where a cadet will be stationed from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

This will help give the parking structure a brighter atmosphere.

At least people will feel a little safer and won’t have to worry as much when walking to their cars.

There was a deluge of requests from professors asking the police to come to their classes and address students’ safety concerns.

Police have conducted 20 safety presentations to date since the last attack.

The Sheriff’s Department is involved with the case, but since the student did not get a good view of the assailant, the quest may be futile.

Naturally, safety is a concern for all students and especially for those of us attending night classes, but we are not helpless. We need to have our wits about us and there are simple things we can do; like don’t talk on cell phones, don’t listen to your i-pod, or do anything that could distract you from paying attention to your surroundings.

One needs to have his or her hands free, for, should an assailant attack an individual, the entire human body will become essential in fighting someone off.

Carrying a dagger and being a black belt in karate might help, too.