At Tuesday’s Student Union meeting, Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore and Boston University Police Department Chief Scott Pare addressed the increasing safety concerns on campus. With a string of robberies and incidents of bike theft on or around campus in recent weeks, many students have questioned to what extent the university has gone in order to increase security on campus.
The answer based on Tuesday’s meeting appears to be not much. Elmore and Pare both emphasized the importance of students being careful and reporting incidents over an increased police presence on campus. And in reality, this is the way it should be.
BU has a more than adequate police force to handle campus crime. Isolated incidents, such as the Sept. 27 robbery of two students outside of the Fitness and Recreation Center, are just that, isolated incidents, and do not warrant a complete overhaul of the BU security system. The real challenge lies in increasing awareness among students.
Pare said that three of the biggest areas of concern this year are electronic theft, bike theft and alcohol transports. Electronic theft is often the result of students leaving their laptops unattended. We were warned about this at orientation, but apparently it didn’t sink in &- leaving your laptop unattended in public, even for a few minutes, is ill-advised and can not possibly yield any positive result. If you need to get up, bring your computer with you. Although there is little that can be done about bike thefts, students should still be aware of where and how they are locking their bikes.
The biggest problem appears to be alcohol transports. When BUPD has to deal with carting drunken students home every weekend, it takes away their presence from other areas where it could be useful and distracts them from more serious crime.
With college culture being what it is today, it is often not enough for students to merely have a few drinks on the weekends. Rather, students feel the need to drink so much that they pass out on the floor. Passing out in a stranger’s house, stumbling home with only your equally drunk friends as companions or not having a strong awareness of your surroundings are examples of obviously dangerous behavior.
Attending BU is not like going to school at Tufts University or Boston College. We live in the middle of a major city, and there is an abundance of things that could happen if you are not acting responsibly.
So walk home with a sober friend, or take advantage of the escort service. But don’t blame BUPD for a mistake that you easily could have prevented.
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