Monday, December 8, 2008
Alex Kany walked out to her car at Meadowbrook Apartments to discover her $150 Global Positioning System had been stolen.
That’s when Kany, Minnetonka, Minn., junior, began to take safety more seriously.
“I realized I could have parked in a better spot since I wasn’t parked near any lights,” she said.
The Gadugi Safecenter
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785.843.3333
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785.864.2277
Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center:
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Student Involvement and Leadership Center
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— Jesse Trimble
After the incident, Kany said, she began to park her 1997 Nissan Ultima near street lights, but three weeks after the first break-in she walked out to the parking lot and found her window smashed in.
“I definitely learned my lesson,” she said. “I don’t keep anything important in my car anymore worth stealing.”
Kany hasn’t been the only student affected by break-ins. But safety issues can extend beyond parking lot break-ins and into more serious territory, such as abduction or stalking.
With the pressure of impending finals, students may feel overwhelmed this time of year, and safety can often be something students forget about, said Kathy Rose-Mockry, program director of the Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center.
Rose-Mockry said students needed to be more aware of what was going on around them this time of year.
“Students think to themselves, ‘Can I get my paper done in time,’ or ‘I’ve got to get all of this stuff prepared before finals hit,’” she said. “One of the things we’re trying to do here is to provide information to students so they feel empowered.”
According to the Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center Web site, 8 percent of women are stalked in their lifetime, and most victims are between 18 and 29 years old.
The site also says that between 26.6 percent and 35.2 percent of female students and between 14.7 percent and 18.4 percent of male students have been stalked.
Rose-Mockry said crimes committed were often crimes of opportunity, such as when a person is alone, looks distracted or vulnerable, or is easy to isolate.
“Students should be aware that there is safety in groups and in numbers,” she said. “When you’re going back and forth, either between classes or shopping, that’s when you are the easiest to isolate and it makes you an easier target.”
The Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center offers a variety of programs and services to students concerning their safety.
As part of these services, each semester the center offers three self-defense workshops, which are held at the Student Recreation Fitness Center or in one of the six residence halls. Rose-Mockry said one of the three workshops was coeducational.
Capt. Schuyler Bailey of the KU Public Safety Office said the most common crime on campus was the theft of unattended property, such as iPods, calculators, textbooks or laptop computers.
Crime rates go down during the holiday season because most students travel home, but students should still remember to lock their doors and windows whether they are on campus are not, Bailey said.
“Students have to remember they need to be aware of their surroundings at all times,” Bailey said. “While walking, studying or jogging, you must be alert to the people around you.”
Bailey said that students shouldn’t take shortcuts and that they needed to walk or shop with a friend and never leave packages in their cars in plain sight.
Rose-Mockry said more students paid attention when tragedy struck close to home.
In June 2007, 18-year-old Kelsey Smith was abducted from a Target parking lot in Overland Park. Smith’s body was found days later near Longview Lake in south Kansas City, Mo.
“I think it’s very frightening when these things happen so close to home and they are within your sphere,” Rose-Mockry said. She said now was the time for students to examine their routines and find ways to increase their safety.
— —Edited by Adam Mowder
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