Despite the many exciting and wonderful aspects of university life, college campuses have long been hot spots for assault, muggings and other similar crimes. An ADT and the Clery Center survey reported more than 82% of college students are concerned for their personal safety on campus, whether it’s “being in an unfamiliar area, interacting with strangers, walking home in the dark or leaving a bar/party alone.”
Many students take preventative measures to help with feelings of safety. Addison Kearns, a freshman studying journalism, said although she generally feels safe on campus, it is mostly because of her own planning ahead.
“If I am out at night, I’m usually with a couple of other people, which definitely helps,” she said.
The majority of college students take the phrase “safety in numbers” seriously. Many students, particularly women, feel safer walking around at night when friends or escorts accompany them, and there are a number of campus organizations that exist to encourage this practice.
Two of these services are Phone a Friend and Pink Cab. According to the former’s BobcatConnect page, “All one must do is text the number and two people will come to walk the individual home.”
Phone a Friend was founded by Jess Mitchell, a senior studying biological sciences.
“I heard (a story) about a friend of mine that occurred on her walk home and I realized that certain people have to alter what their college experience looks like in order to feel secure, and I didn’t think that was okay,” Mitchell said.
Kaycie Tillis, a senior studying psychology and the founder of Pink Cab, got the idea for the organization by hearing about a service at another university that allowed students to serve as imitation Lyft or Uber drivers for other students. Upon hearing this idea, Tillis thought a similar service would be useful to help promote campus safety for women at night.
“I think it’s just better to have women driving other women because even if a man is harmless nine times out of 10, you’re still going to feel unsafe around a man just because you don’t know him,” she said. “So I just think it’s a little bit more calming to have women driving each other.”
No matter how safe a small city like Athens may seem, unfortunate incidents surrounding campus safety are never an impossibility.
“I don’t think any woman loves the idea of walking home alone at night no matter where they are,” Tillis said. “I generally don’t feel particularly threatened, but I still feel like there was a need for (Pink Cab).”
Although Phone a Friend does not put an end to campus safety concerns, Mitchell believes the service does a fair share of good in combating the problem.
“People have expressed feeling more secure knowing that there’s a program out there, I feel like the idea of something like this is really comforting to people,” she said. “I feel like it gives people peace of mind before they go out or hang out with their friends.”
One of the primary safety concerns in Athens, expressed by both Tillis and Mitchell, is the lack of streetlights.
“My street is completely dark at night, and I feel most uneasy whenever I turn down my street after a night out, even when I’m with friends,” Tillis said.
Mitchell said in order to feel safe, people “need to feel seen,” something which could be achieved if Ohio University and the city of Athens increase lighting in areas on and off campus.
During Halloween weekend, one of OU’s most major “red weekends” in which campus experiences more criminal incidents, Pink Cab is planning to accommodate non-OU students who are accompanied by someone with a valid student ID and will allow people to schedule rides in advance. Kearns anticipates the impending weekend and plans to be aware of safety concerns.
“I think my friends and I just (need to) have a conversation that we need to be more aware of our surroundings,” she said.
