It has certainly been a frightening year thus far on Bowling Green’s campus. Criminal activity, hold-ups at gunpoint, and even sexual assaults have received far more attention this year than previously, leading many to believe an epidemic of increased crime is at hand. This is not necessarily true, but the atmosphere of fear that has emerged has a right to exist: The things we are seeing this year are of a distinctly violent note, each one seeming to be more daring, more aggressive and more sadistic than the last.

Students are seeking answers from both the campus and city police, demanding to know how our safety could be placed in such jeopardy. But is it fair, or correct, to blame those in uniform who have so ably served us over the years?

Given the shocking realization that even peaceful Bowling Green is subject to the worst impulses of mankind, one would expect to see a shift in our habits as well. Those people sick enough to perpetrate a violent crime or assault a young woman have already demonstrated that no place, and seemingly no time, are truly safe from their reach. They have attacked in public places in the early evening and outside residence halls in the early morning. Not even the locked doors of our own vehicles seem sufficient to protect us anymore.

It is chilling indeed to realize the fragility of our own security, but there are things each and every student can and should do to improve their own personal safety.

No student, on or off campus and regardless of gender, should ever walk alone at night. Walking in small groups is preferable, and when this is not an option the campus is fortunate to have escort services like 2-Ride, providing students with safer methods of transportation across campus and the city.

Students should also be continually vigilant, both so they can know when people approach them and when a fellow student may be in trouble. When in public places open beverages should never be left alone around strangers, and yes, people you have been having a good conversation with for the last 15 minutes do count as strangers. And students should not be inebriated to such a point that basic tasks are beyond their abilities, and yet still be allowed to walk alone at night.

Students are willing, even eager, to listen to these basic tools for promoting personal safety, but in social settings those same tools are too frequently abandoned in favor of just having fun. But the line between fun and danger is excruciatingly thin, and many times it can be crossed before the unfortunate victim realizes.

Our town is no different. Every Friday and Saturday night our fellow students stagger down sidewalks, too inebriated to walk in any semblance of a straight line or defend themselves against a would-be assailant. Most startling of all, many of these people do so alone or in small groups of equally drunk friends, obviously too far gone to appreciate the precarious nature of their situation or to understand some 70,000 students each year between the ages of 18 and 24 are the victims of alcohol-related sexual assault.

Nonetheless, we cannot simply blame alcohol and move on. Inebriated students are not the only ones who choose to walk alone at night; many students do, convinced of either the necessity to do so or their own invulnerability. To make matters worse, many are plugged into iPods that play so deafeningly loud others can hear the music a good distance away.

Many times crimes like the ones reported this year are done because the opportunity presents itself, not because the perpetrator assembled a rigorous and highly detailed plan. When an assailant sees a student walking alone in a quiet, dark corner of campus, listening to music so loud there is no way they could possibly hear anything around them, the student becomes little more than a target, and for an unfortunate few they become victims as well.

The problem of crime will never go away, but there are measures we as students and individuals can and should take to protect ourselves. These may not be able to address safety in an absolutist sense, and we should not fool ourselves into believing anything else, but they can improve the odds. Ultimately, the burden of our safety will fall on us more often then not because of the simple fact our police, despite their immense competency, simply cannot be everywhere at once.

Given this reality it is imperative we take our safety more seriously, and change our habits to reflect this new-found realization that even here at BG an unsuspecting friend can become a statistic in a police report all too easily.