Just as I begin to feel safe on the SMU campus again, I find myself walking up to yet another shocking yellow notification with bold, capital letters: “SEXUAL ASSAULT.” For any full-time student, a safe campus is a must. Needless to say, when sexual assaults occur more often than the “infamous” Boulevard is put to use, the occasion calls for a little panic. As a first-year resident on the SMU campus, my first reaction to the notices is, “There’s another one. Better not tell Mom or she’ll worry even more.” My second, more thought-out reaction is, “What is it with these sexual assaults?! If it can happen to the girl upstairs, who’s to say it can’t happen to me?”The second reaction brings about a series of consequent actions: 1.) I never leave my room without my phone, 2.) I do not allow creepers, however nice they may seem, to strike up a conversation about the new mysterious dish at Umphrey Lee, and 3.) I always have a walking buddy at night – if not, I certainly follow rule number one. Some would say I’m overreacting, but I only speak from my experiences. To be honest, I’m tired of things such as Giddy-Up being advertised, because half the time they don’t even show up, and the other half of the time they show up far too late. Second-year Nicolette Schleisman has had her fair share of such experiences. “I worked off-campus last semester and would get back to campus around 11:30 p.m.,” she said. “I always had to call a guy friend to walk back to my dorm with me from the parking garage because there wouldn’t be any parking by my dorm. I found out quickly that Giddy-Up doesn’t show up, either.” So what’s a girl to do when walking back alone to her dorm at 12:30 a.m. on a Friday night? I called my brother last Friday after returning to my dorm post, “Red Carpet Affair” and received a shocked response. Sure, it was 1:30 a.m. in New York, but I knew he would be up. The conversation sounded a bit like this on his end: “I don’t understand why you feel the need to call me when you’re walking back. Isn’t your campus safe? There are probably tons of people walking around right now.” And that’s when it really hit me, I didn’t see a single person. I began to wonder why it is that the campus is always so desolate at night. Some students that I talked to thought that it was probably the fact that most of the nightlife moves downtown. Others thought that it was because most students live off campus. Whatever the reason, the student population agrees that it is a major problem. Jenny Tressa, a second-year student, feels the impact that all of the notices have had. “It scares me to know that there are so many sexual assaults on campus because our campus should be a place where we don’t feel scared or threatened.”So far, in the month of February alone, two sexual assaults have been reported. That’s two girls who have had their personal rights violated. Two girls left emotionally distraught. Two girls having to live their life with just a little bit more sadness, anger, and fear. When a student can feel frightened and threatened in their very own home, how “homey” is it really? To all my girls out there, remember that in more cases than not, sexual assault is committed by someone known to the victim and can be prevented. Be sure to stay with friends you know and trust when you go out and never put yourself in compromising situations.

Nureen Gulamali is a freshman advertising and sociology double major. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].