A U. New Mexico student was stabbed in the neck outside the Anthropology Building on Feb. 15. Her assailant got away with her cell phone and was never found.
Since then, several UNM departments initiated new safety measures, but no new lighting has been installed around the Anthropology Building.
Cheo Torres, vice president of Student Affairs, said the initiatives are direct results of the incident.
In February, a “safety walk” was organized, where a group of students and staff patrolled the campus at night looking for burned-out light bulbs, overgrown shrubs that could be trimmed, and places that could use more light fixtures, Torres said.
“We have replaced probably 95 to 99 percent of the lights that were out,” Torres said. “We want our students to be 100 percent safe.”
However, few new light fixtures have been added on campus.
Physical Plant Department staff attended an Aug. 13 campus-safety meeting and identified several areas that need more light fixtures, including the Yale Boulevard bus stop, parts of Zimmerman Library and outside the Anthropology Building — a place they labeled a “priority.”
“I consider (UNM) safe, but I also realize that we are an open campus,” Torres said. “Our students need to be very cognizant of their surroundings, especially in the evenings.”
Torres said two more walks are planned for the coming year, one each semester. In addition, Torres said a PPD staff member goes on weekly campus walks, looking for potential hazards and areas that need light.
UNMPD is also working to improve campus safety, according to Detective Hector Terrazas, who is responsible for student and staff safety orientation.
While UNMPD’s budget doesn’t allow more officers to be hired or more equipment to be purchased, Terrazas said the department has 30 officers. They also switched to a “four-10” shift schedule as of July 1, where officers work four 10-hour days instead of five eight-hour days. Terrazas said the shift change is in part because of the stabbing, which is still being investigated.
“There’s an overlap of two hours, so we always have officers in the field,” Terrazas said. “In the past, when one shift came in to undress, the other shift would come to dress and during that period in time the campus was not being protected.”
UNM sophomore Janet Maes said she has never felt safe after sundown at UNM, mainly because it is an open campus close to Central Avenue.
“I felt really unsafe getting out of my car and walking to Coronado from E-Lot,” Maes said. “Then the stabbing scared me a lot more. I wouldn’t go out alone. I stuck to the dorms after that.”
Maes said on numerous occasions people she did not know, who she said did not attend UNM, asked her to buy alcohol for them while she was on campus.
Matt Dahlgren, a graduate student, said he has always felt safe on campus, no matter the time of day.
“I’m pretty comfortable here,” Dahlgren said. “But I’m a pretty big guy. There are places where there could be more light.”
Maes also said more light would make her feel safer, and she would like to see more emergency call stations around campus.
While Torres said it is impossible to gauge how much safer campus will be with full night lighting, making improvements is better than being passive about the problem.
“I think we’re fairly safe. We don’t have too many incidents,” Torres said. “But we want to have zero incidents.”