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" Lately there have been fliers posted around DePaul&amp;#039;s buildings saying that there has been &amp;quot;an increase in reported student safety related issues near campus&amp;quot;. One of the most important things about being in college and living on your own is that your safety comes first. College comes with freedom, as well as potentially dangerous situations. I&amp;#039;m pretty sure most campuses (hopefully) have some sort of escort system that provides safe transportation between buildings at night. I use it all the time! Ours runs from 6 to 6 every day and they&amp;#039;ll take us anywhere on campus. In the beginning of the year people were embarrassed to use it for some reason but I just thought &amp;quot;Sweet! It&amp;#039;s like a taxi service!&amp;quot; So if you have something like that at your school, use it!! One habit of mine is that I do take shortcuts sometimes. I don&amp;#039;t typically do that when it&amp;#039;s dark because there aren&amp;#039;t as many people, and it&amp;#039;s not lit very well. So always make sure you&amp;#039;re walking through well lit areas. It&amp;#039;s always good to plan your route, especially if you&amp;#039;re new to campus, so you don&amp;#039;t get lost. Here&amp;#039;s a tip that most of you will probably ignore; don&amp;#039;t use your headphones at night! It just makes you look vulnerable and you also won&amp;#039;t be able to hear anything\u2014like footsteps. Here in Chicago, almost everywhere you go everyone has their earbuds in. But, that&amp;#039;s during the day. The only time I really use them when I&amp;#039;m out is when I&amp;#039;m waiting on the train or bus. One of the bad things about living is the city is the amount of homeless people around. Most of them are harmless and won&amp;#039;t bother you, but there have been a few uncomfortable encounters lately. For example I was waiting for the train, people all around, and a man was walking in my direction, I could tell he was homeless, so I switched paths and he did too. He eventually was right in front of me. He stuck out his hand like he wanted me to shake it but I didn&amp;#039;t. He also reeked of alcohol. I should&amp;#039;ve left right away but he caught me off guard and I stayed long enough for him to ask, slurring his words, &amp;quot;why are you so pretty?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;i need a dollar thirteen cents&amp;quot;, and then he touched my arm and at that moment I was thinking, okay this man did not just touch me! That made me pretty mad so I said sarcastically, have a nice day, and ran off. My mistake was that I should&amp;#039;ve quickly left before he even said a word. But it made me learn to ignore a surprise encounter like that and walk away. So a few last tips is when traveling at night, don&amp;#039;t go by yourself and always be aware of your surroundings with your head held high and a stern expression on your face like &amp;quot;don&amp;#039;t bother me!&amp;quot;. Keep your purse close to you and your wallet in a small pocket. If you are in an area by yourself, keep your cell phone in your hand instead of your purse for easy access. Well, that&amp;#039;s about it. Any more tips to add? Feel free to comment! Stay safe :) "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/school/a4260/lauren-campus-safety/>