Campus security

By: Emily Fehrman / Opinion Page Editor

This week, I want to talk about campus security.

I’ve recently had a conversation with someone who is on the committee for campus safety. They believe that campus could be a safer place for everyone, and would like to see a change. 

Some within the school don’t quite see eye to eye with them on a few things, mainly that there isn’t a problem. But some students who live in the dorms are scared to make the walk over to Rimmer Learning Center at night.

Even people who don’t live in the dorms are scared to go to Rimmer at night. Take me, for example.

I don’t go unless I can have someone with me. It doesn’t help with the people going around asking them to join their church or whatever it is they want. As a small 5-foot, 4-inch woman, it is very intimidating when a 6-foot something man is walking up to you from the shadows asking you to join a group. 

If we had improved security they wouldn’t think they could do this stuff in the first place. 

We only have one security guard and rent-a-cops for the dorms on the weekends. And some people have expressed that this doesn’t make them feel any safer. If anything, they make them uncomfortable. 

I, for one, think campus could use more security, especially after the cop-and-shooter standoff that happened just blocks away from our campus last week. 

I was sitting in class about to get out early when one of the students got a text from a friend saying that we might be going on lockdown due to there being a shooting. 

For those few minutes before we got the text alert from the college saying that the shooting was just down the street, I was terrified. Thinking, oh my god … we don’t have any sort of security or security measures to take if we were faced with such an event. I don’t think just going on lockdown can qualify as “safety measures.”

In hopes to show the school that this really is an issue, if anyone would please send their thoughts and concerns with us here at The Hutchinson Collegian, that would be greatly appreciated. 

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