With a semester behind it, the Student Union actually added to its already lengthy wish list after it found the Charles River Campus’s system of blue box phones aren’t as visible as school officials would have students believe. While fixing campus security adds to the Union’s already full plate, the administration should heed the group’s warnings.
A revamp of the both campuses’ blue light systems is long overdue. Call stations should serve as more than mere symbols to make students feel safe. To be truly effective, these lights must be conspicuous enough to deter criminals from attempting an assault as well as reassure students of their safety. There are no police decals or other signs of security protection immediately visible around the stations to advertise this. Instead, students can barely see some lights through dark patches and street obstructions.
Though the limits of BU’s campus are always hard to define, the administration has a responsibility to expand the blue light system to include all of South and West campuses, as well as to ensure every call box works and can be seen from a distance. Phones alone, however, only work in concert with a strong police presence well into the night. If an already understaffed Boston Police Department can direct traffic around construction on Commonwealth Avenue during the day, the Boston University Police Department can afford to add foot patrols to its cursory squad car surveillance of the Charles River Campus.
The realities of living on an urban campus do not mean students should expect less security, but rather that campus police must maintain a greater presence than forces at comparable colleges in rural settings. Students should always be wary when walking alone at night, but the administration line that they should never walk late hours without friends is simply unrealistic. If students feel unsafe walking through their own campus, the administration has a problem.
Though students should never underestimate the work police officers and student volunteers put in toward campus safety year round, BU administrators and the Student Union have a way to go before students can walk on their home turf without fear.
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