Reports of armed robbery during Spring Break have students worried about personal safety near Boston University, though no one showed up to a meeting about campus security with school officials last night.
BU Police Chief Thomas Robbins sent an email to students yesterday, reminding them to take safety precautions while on the urban campus. He said one robbery occurred at the West Campus dorm complex, and the Boston Police Department reported two robberies on the 1100 block of Commonwealth Avenue.
Robbins and Dean of Student Kenneth Elmore faced six rows of empty wooden chairs in the Warren Towers Cinema Room, expecting to field student concerns, but ending up answering questions from four student reporters.
“We’re not discouraged,” Elmore said. “We will keep doing it, coming together every month with students.”
Robbins said the meetings are meant to keep the BU community informed of safety measures police are taking and aware of possible dangers.
“We want to at least get the information out there,” Robbins said. “We’re most concerned with people’s safety. I want you to be safe here. You are safe here, and I want to keep it that way.”
Students said they had read Robbins’s email, which details reports of three robberies occurring within a short time period the morning of March 8, but are not always able to avoid walking alone on and near campus.
Corinne Jones, a College of Arts and Sciences senior, said the two reported off-campus robberies worry because she lives a few blocks from where police said they occurred,
“It made me nervous because that morning I had to catch a cab to the airport at 4,” she said. “I have friends who live in Coolidge Corner, maybe a 15 minute walk for me, and it’s such a pain to take the T all the way to Kenmore and back.”
Karen Godfrey, a CAS junior, said she talks on her cellphone and tends to walk faster when she walks on campus by herself late at night.
“I’m comfortable walking across campus — up to a certain point,” Godfrey said. “At 2 or 3 a.m. it’s a little sketchy. When I’m on campus it’s close enough that I can get to where I need to go.”
Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences senior Rachel Toran lives in South Campus and said and her initial reaction to the email was that crime simply “happens.”
“It’s horrible. People should feel safe,” Toran said. “I always have at least one other person with me or take a cab. I was surprised that people were out that late by themselves.”
Several students said they try to look “confident” when walking by themselves at night, in order to avoid becoming a target.
“My friend was robbed at gun point last year on Bay State,” College of Communication junior Shawn Quirk said. “I usually just walk. I guess you just have to sometimes.”
COM junior Dani Barbieri said she uses her bike when she can to travel around campus and is generally unconcerned about safety.
“When you’re walking alone at night you’re asking to be a target,” Barbieri said. “It shouldn’t be that way though.”