Virginia Tech: An Example of How Colleges Can Better Protect Students
Beginning on January 22, 2021, female students living on and off campus in Blacksburg, VA, began hearing through the grapevine that apartments had been broken into. Although no real response had been made by neither the University nor the police department, word got around town that an unidentified man or men were breaking into women’s apartments, watching them sleep and stealing their personal objects such as underwear.
Students React to VTPD Response
Women across campus banded together to spread the word, keep others informed and try to stay safe. The first time I heard about what was happening was through a Tweet, which had gone semi-viral, in which a Virginia Tech student called out the University for not giving out any information about the situation. Although the VT Police Department sent out an email on January 23 describing the two burglaries that had happened thus far, the descriptions were vague. The suspect was described as a “college aged white male wearing dark clothing and face covering” and the only other information, aside from these occurrences being break ins, was that “several items” had been stolen.
A second update email was sent by VTPD on January 25, which enraged the female population at VT. Saying, “The community is cautioned not to draw conclusions on any crime based on unofficial sources of information, including social media,” female students were appalled at how the University and the police department were handling this serious situation. Many women, including myself, wouldn’t be as aware of the situation happening in our own complexes if it weren’t for victims sharing their stories online. VTPD was essentially trying to silence us, saying that we should only listen to official statements made by the police department, the same department who only sent out two emails regarding the break ins. In that same email from January 25, VTPD said, “Additional information will be released at a later date and time.” Two weeks later, and we still haven’t heard anything.
Relying on Other Resources to Find Information
Since the beginning, it’s become evident that social media is our friend when dealing with taking matters into our own hands and spreading the word. The platform that helped the most in accomplishing said goals was Twitter, hands down. I was amazed at how women came together to incite awareness, share their stories, spread helpful tips on how to protect yourself and be a shoulder to lean on. We also saw men step up to help their female friends, neighbors, relatives or girlfriends feel safer in their own homes. These men crashed on couches, helped spread the word and were an overall source of safety for women on campus.
Other resources that provided information surrounding the break ins and burglaries came from websites such as Crime Mapping and reports from VT such the Daily Crime Logs. However, when you look at the crime logs, many break ins are now defined as inactive, meaning that no further investigation will be ensued.
Methods of Improvement
Virginia Tech and VTPD should use this situation as an example; they should recognize their mistakes and learn from them by implementing new strategies. Based on the community’s reaction to vague, infrequent emails surrounding the break ins, the University and VTPD need to do better. Creating a social media campaign based on crime updates, listening to female students and going the extra mile to keep them safe should be VT’s priority. Posting once on Instagram or sending out a Tweet every now and then is insufficient, and students — especially female ones — deserve more than that. Speaking as a woman at VT, I want to feel safe in my home and on campus, but instead I’m driven to beg my male friends to spend the night, spend money I don’t have on self-protection tools and rely heavily on social media.
