By Madison Thompson — 

Attending a college or university can be an exciting adventure. It presents young adults with freedom to be on their own for the first time. Part of the “college experience” can be living on your own.

There are many things for a college student to consider when moving into an apartment or dorm. There’s proximity to campus, cost, what is included and provided with each room and safety.

Safety of the surrounding area and inside the dorm or apartment can be a make or break deal for a student. It is becoming an increasing concern for Arch residents and students on campus. U of L received a rating of 20th safest university in the country by College Choice.

There are ways the university proactively handles crime on campus such as guards and more frequent patrols over crime-ridden areas need to be taken to ensure the safety of our fellow students. The same cannot be said about the surrounding areas.

Safety for students and residents needs to be a priority for the university and surrounding areas for the present and the future.

In the same semester, two shootings occurred at The Arch apartments, a nearby apartment complex with college student residents. Two shootings within five months of each other is unacceptable for any campus.

The semester also yielded more than 300 incident reports from the University of Louisville Police Department ranging  from fire alarms and theft, vehicular accidents, harassment and intoxication at the Arch.

During the same time, Louisville Metro Police Department wrote 90 incident reports 1,500 feet around The Arch.  These reports are broken down on the LMPD website into the day of the week and the type of incident ranging from assault, theft, vandalism, drugs and alcohol.

Looking into these reports raises intriguing questions about the safety on and around campus. It brings into question the validity of the university’s safety ranking.

Students often consider the area just around the university to be a part of campus. Taking this into consideration, students must be aware a safety ranking is just a number and precautions still need to be taken to ensure personal safety.

Incident reports are not the only concerning aspect of the affiliate housing of The Arch. Many students and residents on Google reviews are unsatisfied with the safety of the building. The main safety gate has reportedly malfunctioned and been broken numerous times.

It is not alright to have so many reported incidents on and around campus. It demonstrates that we are not as safe as we perceive. Students are being misled to  think university safety applies to the surrounding areas when it doesn’t.

File Photo / The Louisville Cardinal