Blue light special?

Walking: It didn't happen much in my affluent, suburban hometown (OK, fine, I'm from Carmel. Get over it). If you were walking on the sidewalk, there was something wrong with you. Everyone drove everywhere. Pedestrian safety wasn't a big deal. Strange people didn't follow you and make creepy, mostly incoherent conversation. \nThis isn't an "Oh my god. There are homeless people in Bloomington. I want to go back home!" column. But when this kind of stuff keeps happening to me, particularly when I'm about to enter a dark, forested path back to my dorm, I start to think about what this situation might be like for a 120-pound girl. At a whopping 5'8" on a good day, I'm obviously able to fend for myself -- I was on the wrestling team in junior high, after all -- but what about the aforementioned female or any unarmed, intoxicated or helpless student making his or her way home after a long Friday night of studying at the library (or partying on Kirkwood)?\nSo I decided to look into this matter a little bit. I got onto the IU Web site, found a link to the emergency preparedness page, www.iub.edu/~prepare, and downloaded a PDF file about the emergency phone system on campus. According to the PDF, there are 24 emergency phones on campus. This seems substantial, but when I read the locations of the phones, I was surprised. \nMaybe it's just because I'm a freshman, but to me, the placement of the emergency phones seems impractical, if not random. While the Optometry School and Jordan Avenue Parking Garage merited two and four emergency phones respectively, there is a complete absence of emergency phones on "frat row" (Jordan Avenue north of Law Lane) and the majority of the adjacent extension. This is a place where I imagine many young women (and men) might need help in less time than it would take for the B bus to come pick them up. The closest two phones are at the SRSC and Briscoe Quad. Even with these two additions, neither is close enough to make a difference. No girl wearing her "going out" shoes is going to make it to Briscoe from a fraternity as far north as Phi Sigma Kappa. \nNow I'm fully aware that fraternities have phones, but if a student feels threatened by a potential predator, is he or she really going to be able to ask to make a call? The student could also use a cell phone, but not many students have the campus emergency numbers on speed dial -- although maybe they should. Nor would many have time to search through a purse or backpack to find a cell phone in a time of crisis or emergency. On the run, a familiar blue light is a lot more helpful than mistakenly grabbed lipstick. \nAll I ask is that the University to put a few more blue lights in an area where everyone knows it's dangerous. There are 14 bus stops in an area with zero phones. Just because someone's wearing a polo shirt doesn't mean he's any less dangerous than a homeless man talking gibberish. The administration should acknowledge that.