I work from home so I spend a lot of time in my room. Today I was just sitting at my desk waiting for a call to come in as I work for a call center and I hear my door starting to open. It scared me, but I figured my boyfriend must have been on campus and found a way into the building and was coming to say hi when the door opened all the way and an unfamiliar face stared in and my heart skipped a beat and I found myself saying, “what the hell?” The girl looking back at me looked just as scared and she said,
“Oh my gosh! Wrong floor, I’m so sorry!”
“You’re good, it happens!”
She let the door fall shut and I stood up and locked it after a few seconds when I figured she couldn’t hear me do it. It made me think about security on campus and how my grandma always reminds me to be safe when walking around at night and always lock my doors. I always do, but I’ve never felt unsafe on campus and I found it funny that the closest thing to feeling unsafe was a simple mistake after the initial fear and I had realized what happened it was hilarious.
I’m a pretty paranoid person so I always lock my doors and I walk fast when I’m alone at night, but I’ve never really felt that LC is a dangerous campus. It seems that campus safety is always roaming around and even though the campus is a bit dark due to it being in the trees, but there are lights across campus and also emergency call stations. I remember freshman year when I was still a bit unsure about the campus and who was on it I had spent the evening with my friends in their dorm in Copeland. We were excited about being in college and getting to know each other so we had all stayed up talking until 2 am. Because we were freshmen, most everyone lived in Copeland and I was the only one who lived in Akin which was across campus. It wasn’t a far walk but it was cold and dark and rainy so I had little motivation to walk back. My friend said, “Don’t worry Lizzie, I got you.” He pulled out his phone and called campo (Campus Security). He asked if the security would come to pick me up and give me a ride to Akin and less than 10 minutes later the campo car pulled up outside. He happily drove me back to my dorm and joked that my friend thought he was a taxi service because my friend had called to be brought from his dorm to Maggies which is just a short walk away. I never used campo as a “taxi” again but it is nice to know that they will help you wherever you are on campus if you need it.
When comparing my experience to those of my friends it seems that my campus is one of the safest, it may be that we’re out of the way of the city and is a pretty small campus but regardless it’s one of the only places I feel comfortable walking around alone at night. This isn’t to say that one should completely let their guard down, but when it comes to college campuses Lewis and Clark isn’t a bad place to be when concerned about safety.