GC&SU holds one of the lowest crime rates in Georgia

The beautiful surroundings of Georgia College & State University are cozy and peaceful for students away from home; however, even in the most comfortable of settings, students must remain on guard and aware of their surroundings at all times.

GC&SU boasts one of the lowest crime rates among Georgia campuses, but this still does not make our students immune from assault or crime.

“There are usually around two or three date rapes or assaults each year,” said GC&SU Public Safety Deputy Director Richard Goodson.

Every year assaults, date rapes and thefts occur across the country, even here at GC&SU. Students become targets by not being aware of their surroundings, not taking advantage of safety precautions provided on campus and by introducing alcohol into any situation.

Public Safety Director Ken Vance heartily agrees.

“At least 90 percent of all violent crimes at GC&SU in the last five years involved alcohol,” said Vance.

Goodson feels strongly about remaining in control of any situation involving alcohol.

“In over 17 years of police work, I can’t recall one case of date rape where alcohol wasn’t involved,” said Goodson.

Many safety features are provided on and around campus, from 16 emergency call boxes around campus and 12 public safety officers patrolling the campus to 24-hour locked residence halls.

Problems can occur when students choose to abuse these safety measures or ignore them.

Students who allow known guests or strangers to enter the residence halls with them are defeating the purpose of the locked door policy. By bringing unknown guests into residence halls, students may be innocently endangering their friends. Residence halls are provided with a call box outside for the guest to call the student directly in their room.

Some students feel that more steps could be taken by the university to ensure their safety when they are walking outside.

“We need better lighting in the parking lots and around the buildings. It can be scary walking around after evening classes when you can’t see if anyone is around the corner,” said GC&SU sophomore Christin Robins.

Above anything else, students must remember to put their safety first when alone or even interacting in a crowd. Especially when alcohol becomes part of a situation, attitudes change, judgments become clouded, and there is an increased potential for danger.

“There are innocent victims, and there are not so innocent victims. The bottom line is that they are still victims,” said Vance.

GC&SU Public Safety officers are only able to protect students to a certain extent. Students must be accountable for their own actions and responsible for using common sense and good judgment.

Vance would like to remind everyone: “No means no. Yes means yes. Everything else means no.”

If you would like more information on prevention, counseling or need to report a crime, call Public Safety at 445-4400 or 4054.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 7 2003. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry