The University has continued to increase its campus safety features in the past few years, but some say problems with campus safety lie in inadequate education and prevention measures.
The University maintains five well-lit paths for crossing the campus after dark and is considering installing more lights, as well as installing more emergency telephones around campus, Department of Public Safety Associate Director Tom Hicks said.
DPS dispatchers respond within two to four minutes when someone uses one of the 37 blue-light emergency phones spread throughout the campus, Hicks said. A person can notify public safety by hitting the red emergency button on the yellow poles, or by dialing 346-6666 from locations with a regular phone.
Community education major Lezlie Frye doesn’t feel safe on campus, and her concerns have nothing to do with policing or quick-response measures. She said the campus fosters a “rape environment,” which imposes a “curfew” on women who fear for assaults at night.
Frye said she has to move around campus at night because of her schedule and will not stop doing so.
“That’s not always the safest choice, though,” Frye said. “That’s the problem.”
Frye said the Women’s Studies Program and the Women’s Center are “grossly underfunded,” and increasing funding to them would go a long way toward making the campus safe. She suggested the University could offer more opportunities for education about rape culture and campus safety.
A woman was assaulted behind the Knight Library two weeks ago, and police have not ruled out as the perpetrator a man suspected of six attacks last year. The assault has not increased concern around campus much, though, Frye said.
“I don’t think it’s any different from things that have happened at the University for a while now,” she said. “This was just kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Hicks said increased lighting and faster responses are only a starting point. He said a large part of crime prevention comes from community involvement and awareness. The Women’s Center and Office of Student Life in particular have successfully educated the University community about crime prevention, he said, and the surrounding neighborhoods have effectively used community policing to decrease crime in the area.
Despite the campus safety measures, many women feel unsafe, according to Martha Ravits, an assistant professor and director of the Women’s Studies Program.
Ravits said new female students in particular often feel unsafe on campus.
“I’m hearing vocal women students feel they’re unsafe,” Ravits said. “The lighted paths are a good thing, but perhaps more could be done with it.”
Ravits said increased education should be a priority.
“This is a problem that needs to be addressed not by trying to shelter women or suppress them, but by approaching it as a systematic problem at the societal level that can be helped through education and management of men’s behavior,” she said.