By Elizabeth English

After recent attacks and incidents on ETSU's campus, students should take more safety responsibility, police say.

 “October was busy,” said Lt. Mike Orr, police officer with ETSU’s campus security.

ETSU’s attendance is growing significantly every semester. Paralleling this growth is the number of reported incidents on campus.  With about 15,000 students, faculty, and staff there is not much anyone can do to tell if someone on campus is affiliated with the school or not.  Some of the crimes reported in the past semester alone have been committed by people that did not attend school or work at ETSU, said Orr.

Most of the crimes that will take place on campus are opportunistic crimes.

                                                --Lt. Mike Orr

In October  a few attacks on students took place on campus.  There were other acts of burglary, vandalism, and some incidents of domestic abuse, said Orr.  Some of the people who committed these illegal acts were students.   However, others may not have been.

The responsibility of safety falls not only on the campus safety department, but on the faculty, staff, and students as well. Orr suggests that if an individual walking around campus looks suspicious, that should be reported to campus safety.  Officers will assess the situation and determine if something needs to be said or done.

 Most of the crimes that will take place on campus are opportunistic crimes, said Orr. Leaving a purse or a backpack in the car may not seem like a target, but people will seize the opportunity to take anything that is potentially valuable. 

The highest rate of crime on campus is theft and vandalism.  A student may feel comfortable laying a backpack down in the Cave while they get a coffee or sushi, yet while they step away for a moment someone could easily walk up to the backpack and take it.

A student could leave a book at their computer in the library and walk to the printers for a moment.  This could be a big mistake, the expensive books are easy to pick up and walk away with. 

While these simple things could lead to a crime they are just as simple to prevent.  Even stepping away for a moment can turn out to be a critical decision, said Orr.    

There is a basic self-defense course that the public safety office offers called Rape, Aggression, Defense, or RAD.  RAD is offered free to women over the age of 13 and is taught by officer Amanda Worley, who works with the campus security.  This course is designed to help women escape from their attackers and hopefully prevent further assault, said Worley.  This class has been offered twice this semester.

“Ninety-eight percent of attacks are a male attacking a woman,” said Worley.

The course is 12 hours long. On the last day students practice on a man acting as an attacker so they will have some real-world experience and be confident enough to defend themselves.  If anyone is interested they can e-mail Officer Worley at worleya@etsu.edu. 

Another of the services that ETSU offers its students is the safety escort.  A police officer or an ETSU housing staff member will ensure a student or staff member’s safety to get to their car or dorm.  It is offered any day, at any time, but has not been used as much as it should be, Orr said. There are also blue emergency phones that students should familiarize themselves with the location, said Orr.

 Some students try to protect themselves by carrying pepper spray or a Taser.  It may be best to leave the Taser at home, said Orr, who believes they may be more dangerous to carry than not to.  As for pepper spray, it will go where it wants to, so if the wind blows it back it could be in more dangerous than helpful, said Orr.   

Campus security does have a Twitter and Facebook alert system to notify students.  Students and staff can add this group or follow it on Twitter and receive updates.

“I think our campus security are doing all they can, I see them everywhere,” said Tyler Smotherman, a junior bachelor of applied science major at ETSU. 

“I think students need to be smarter and not take so many risks with their safety," he said.  "They need to think about what could happen to them before they walk back alone to their dorm at four in the morning.”