It is 9 p.m. on a Wednesday night and a female in her early 20s is walking from the Boilerhouse to her apartment in Naper Place on Main St. The wind is blowing, pricking her face with little needles while her feet crunch through the piles of yellow, red and orange.
She decides to take the shortcut to get from campus to downtown Naperville and out of the cold. She makes her way towards Meiley-Swallow Hall and down to the children’s playground behind the YMCA. The temperature is dropping and the path ahead is faintly lit with orange. Out of the corner of her eye she sees a silhouette: male, tall, stocky, and bundled.
Looking at the path ahead of her, the young woman realizes that at the rate she and this stranger are walking, they will both meet at the end of the crossing towards the side of the “Y” where there is no light. Regardless of the risk, she continues on the path.
As she forges ahead, the stranger’s footsteps pick up tempo along with her heart rate.
Peeking over her shoulder every few seconds to see where the stranger was, the woman power walked to the other side of the park, down to Washington St., where the stoplight was and where she felt she would be safe. She was safe.
After paranoia subsided, she realized the stranger was a male student from North Central, making his way to the same apartment complex. Although, it was a bit unsettling to hear his footsteps pace with hers – picking up and slowing down – she made it back to her apartment safe and sound.
This student is not the only student to put their safety at the end of their list while they go through their daily schedules. On-campus and off-campus students are burying themselves in three to four courses per term and working a part-time job into the mix. Checking items off the list of things to do and taking short cuts to make it to the end of the list, may take precedence over personal safety with a college student’s hectic schedule.
North Central College’s Campus Safety has precautions for the college campus as a whole. The contact phone number (630-637-5911) for Campus Safety is available on the college’s website, phone app, and available in person at their campus location.
“I think it’s important to know that Campus Safety is here 24/7 seven days a week,” says Marc Molina, director of Campus Safety. “Unfortunately, if several different things are going on, we may not be immediately visible or immediately available, but I think it’s important to know that we are there as a resource if students are traveling from the library when it’s closing and they don’t feel comfortable going back to their dorm. We highly encourage them to contact us. We will provide an officer to escort them, whether it’s walking with them or by vehicle. We provide this to students as an extra comfort and safety.”
Molina emphasizes the importance of being conscience of personal safety even though North Central College is in a fairly safe location.
“I think the nice thing is that Naperville is one of the nicest places to live,” says Molina. “It’s a pretty safe area, but I think that can lead you into a false sense of security. I think that’s a dangerous place to be, because you should always assume that anything can happen at any time.”
With no intention of placing fear in students, Molina wants students to be attentive to their surroundings. One way Molina suggests is to put the cell phones away.
“During the day I see people walking with their cell phone and not attentive to vehicular traffic,” says Molina. “Even though there may not be any criminal danger, there is certainly a safety danger or potential for danger.”
Recognizing the potential or even the surroundings in general, is an important factor that Molina pushes students to be aware of, even if the crime rate on campus is barely visible. Many students are not informed on the safety tools that are available to them.
After an anonymous survey done with 29 students, only one student was aware of the number of assistance call boxes that are found throughout campus. There are 17 total call boxes, either in the form of a kiosk, call box or phone. 20 out of the 29 students that were polled said they only know of one to three on campus. Most of the students had only seen the kiosks that stand in front of Goldspohn and Pfeiffer Hall.
While not being aware of the tools available to them, some students find that safety isn’t a large concern for North Central.
“I have always felt safe walking through North Central College,” says on-campus student Rob Wegley. “I know (we) are in the middle of a suburban area and it’s a very small campus compared to University of Illinois, where more unsafe things are happening. If there is ever any emergencies, I know there is a text service that you can sign up for or email alerts that you’ll get if you sign up for it.”
Utilizing the electronic tools to keep in the know is how students are informing themselves of what is going on around campus, like Wegley. Not only are students setting up their phones for updates from the college, but they are taking the precautions Molina spoke of earlier.
Off-campus student Addie Boettcher starts her days on campus around 6:30 a.m., when there are very few out and about.
“When I get here in the morning there’s really nobody here and when I leave later at night, I never really see anyone out,” says Boettcher. “I never really feel intimidated.”
“During the day there’s a bunch of people around, so you know nothing is going to happen then,” says Boettcher. “Even when I’ve been here by myself, I’ve never really been too concerned with it, because I haven’t put myself in a situation where I’ve felt threatened.”
When Boettcher’s biology lab time runs late or if she finds herself spending time on campus past late afternoon she has learned to take precautions when walking to her car.
“People typically walk me to my car if it’s late at night,” says Boettcher.
Taking the proper precautions like Boettcher, Wegley, and other students do, while also knowing what is available is key to what Campus Safety wants the college campus to be aware of while going through their daily routines. Schedules can be daunting and personal safety isn’t always on the radar, but the last situation Campus Safety wants is for a student to walk alone late at night from the library to their dorm and not feel like they are safe.
“We know that historically, the best crime prevention is to be constantly on the lookout for something that doesn’t look right and reporting that,” Molina. “That’s the important thing, often times people see something that might look suspicious, but they don’t move on it. The important message for the campus community is that regardless of whether they have a small suspicion or large suspicion, we want them to report that. We want to be able to go over there and check it out and determine whether it’s something to be concerned about.”
