It seems that the proverbial college bubble has been broken by disturbing news from the past two weeks.
Last week, Tufts students reacted with shock and sorrow to the shooting spree at Virgina Tech; today they opened their e-mail inboxes and saw a safety alert informing them of three recent sexual assaults.
It is scary to realize that your sense of safety might be illusory and that the bright lights along Powderhouse Boulevard do not necessarily bring safety.
Facts from last Friday's sexual assault are disarming. The event took place at 9:45 p.m., earlier than most students start to be wary of walking alone. It happened in an area where many upperclassmen live in off-campus housing, around the corner of Capen and Winthrop streets in Medford.
When it comes to TUPD, the department can do more on its part to ensure all students are adequately and promptly informed of safety alerts. It was not until late Monday afternoon that the police department sent out e-mail notification of Friday night's assault.
Although posters were up on campus over the weekend, students who live off campus (those mostly likely to be affected by these incidents) often rely on e-mail for information and updates. The Medford/Somerville campus should have been made electronically aware of the incident as soon as possible, so that students could have potentially exercised more caution going about their weekend activities.
But regardless of any safety alert, it's important to realize that no matter how insulated we feel from dangers of the real world, admittance to Tufts does not equal a four-year hiatus from normal daily concerns about safety.
We should take seriously the TUPD escort service and use it as is needed; we must be vigilantly aware of our surroundings while walking around after dark.
In what is a rather distressing coincidence, the three assaults in the past 10 days have all taken place during Sexual Assualt Awareness Month.
It is a reminder that our activism on campus is addressing relevant, important concerns. Perhaps we might also extend our outreach further into surrounding communities so that we step outside this bubble which is, in reality, more fragile than we think.
