BY JULIAN HERRERA
A Perspective
These are dark days for Southwestern College.
Really dark.
Construction has turned our once-lovely campus into a nighttime maze of muddy, dusty and dark allies.
Women taking and teaching night classes have noticed. A lot of them are quitting out of fear.
Isabel Poag is one of them.
“It didn’t really feel safe at all,” she said. “You couldn’t see around corners or anything in front of you or even see if there was someone else around. I ended up dropping out of my night class because I didn’t feel safe.”
Poag said some of her former classmates made her feel uncomfortable.
“I would always try and pack up early enough so I could leave with a group of people, because if I stayed even a little bit behind, I would be left alone,” she said. “Some creepy men in the classes really pushed to talk to me after class, even after I told them I didn’t want to. I just felt unsafe.”
Southwestern College police say they offer escorts for students who may not feel comfortable traversing the campus alone at night, but actually getting one is another matter. Poag, among others, said she had no idea escorts were available.
“Considering I’ve never even seen any security around school at that time of night, I don’t really have much trust in them to help me out if I needed it,” she said.
Darkness is the friend of astronomers, but the enemy of women. Fear is an unneeded strain and an educational barrier for more than half our student population. Feeling secure on campus is a right and an expectation. While women already systematically face setbacks and unfavorable environments in the workplace, Southwestern College should work to keep every student’s safety a priority.
Here is a challenge to college leadership: Take a walk around campus at 10 p.m. Alone. And imagine your wife or young daughter out there after dark.