All campus safety measures are not the same.  There are some basic factors to consider when evaluating your personal safety in any situation.  It’s not just about weapons or self defense moves.  Your safety on campus is about much more.  It’s about your awareness to circumstances, conditions and threats.

When reviewing your situation, consider the following factors:

• Are you alone or in a group of people?
• Is it day time or night time?
• Is it a weekday or weekend?
• Is school in session or on a break?
• Are you on campus or off?

By being aware of the above factors and adjusting accordingly, you increase your safety awareness and understanding of possible threats.  This reduces your risk of being attacked.  Being vigilant is a 24 hour job, but there are different levels of vigilance.  For example, sitting in class with 20 classmates and a professor teaching, your level of concern is much lower then if you were walking across campus on your way home from a party at 2:30 a.m.

Understanding the different factors and their apparent risks, and adjusting your behavior is another way to protect yourself.  Let’s take the above scenarios and add a supportive behavior modification to it.

• Recognizing it’s late before you head out to a party, you decide to call some friends to walk with you
• Knowing there is a greater threat of attack at night time, you decide to wait until morning to run that errand
• Understanding that the campus has less activity during the weekend, you decide to call a friend to walk to the library
• Being aware that during breaks there is much less support and decide to change your on campus plans
• Recognizing the neighborhoods bordering your school can be dangerous at night, near parties and breaks, you decide to steer clear until you’re with a group of friends

None of the above are dramatic changes, but represent subtle shifts you can make right now to become more aware of your personal protection and enhance your safety on campus.