Disclaimer: We at The Xavierite want to protect the integrity and privacy of circumstances that have recently surfaced on campus.
With this in mind, this will be a general article about protecting the safety of students on campus.
The University does the have resources for providing a safe campus to all students and residents of Saint Xavier. There are emergency call buttons all placed around campus which when pressed, will contact public safety to that location.
Public safety does the bare minimum for keeping people safe.
One example of this is the day of the polar vortex when public safety roamed the campus to make sure students were safe and warm. Shuttles provided transportation as well.
However, with recent allegations of sexual assault and a title IX case being spoken of, I went to interview one student who had some opinions about safety on campus.
When asked if she felt safe on campus, Jasmine McCall, senior, stated, “No, I don’t feel safe. Not only on campus, but as a woman you never feel safe in general.”
I agree with this response. Women and men alike never feel completely protected. So many precautions have been set in place and yet, there is this eerie feeling of discomfort when it comes to roaming campus alone, or going places alone, especially at night.
We as students need to feel better about safety on campus. One way to do this is through an open dialogue with students and administration. As McCall puts it, “First, we need to have full disclosure between administration and students.”
This is a good first step. The administration is doing this, as evident by the mass student email sent from Student Affairs on February 9th.
The email states,“We invite you to participate in one of our upcoming gatherings to make sure all students are informed about SXU’s systems, standards, and resources available to students in distress.”
This open conversation is a good first step for providing students with the knowledge they need regarding SXU safety policies.
It helps students remain informed, and deters any false information. Regarding false information, students should always respect the privacy of persons involved with sexual assault cases.
If more false information is told, then the campus becomes a less safe place full of suspicion and hatred. It is important we as a community come together to learn SXU’s policies and remain informed.
There are multiple resources where one can express themselves with confidentiality. One of these resources is the Counseling Center.
This provides students with a safe place to talk and have professionals listen to their concerns.
With all this in mind, the next step would be action. However, it is up to the administration to protect the campus further —not the students.
We as students can only do so much, and it is important to not lose complete faith in the SXU community.
SXU has resources for safety, but it would only be beneficial to add more, and provide more spaces for students to openly discuss their thoughts. By creating a new environment, the campus would feel a lot safer, and we as a collective would thrive.
Emily Rubino
Opinions Editor