As the new editor of The Reveille, I could start the semester off by talking about how great I expect our newspaper will be this spring. While I do envision this to be a wonderful semester for news and for The Reveille’s growth, I’ll spare everyone details. I’m hoping the campus community will recognize our efforts without me pointing them out.
Instead, I’d like to start the semester with a column that stems from a late night evening in Lafayette — at the emergency vet.
Now, the statement above sends chills through my spine for two reasons. First, the emergency vet visit cut about $200 from my Christmas budget. Second, I spent a couple hours that evening outside and alone in an unknown area of Lafayette.
That night, I was not worried about walking around outside by myself during the three hour vet visit. The fresh air and open space distracted me as the LSU Small Animal Clinic vets tried to help the on-call Lafayette vet figure out what was wrong with my pet chinchilla. At one point, a lady whose dog had been bitten by a snake, even came outside to warn me about “that serial killer who is on the loose in Lafayette.” I kindly thanked her by telling her I was a Baton Rouge resident. My reasoning — I’ve lived with the threat of a serial killer for a whole semester, there is no reason for me to be cautious now. If he hasn’t snatched me yet, he’s not going to get me.
But, when I came back to begin my term as editor, one of my first duties required me to decide whether or not The Reveille would participate in Student Life and Academic Services’ Stay Safe campaign. I accepted the opportunity for The Reveille to be a good citizen. We, like many other units on campus, agreed to proudly display the Stay Safe logo on our Web site and run ads giving students safety tips and contact information. Keep in mind that as I agreed to participate, I still had doubts about what it could do. I still had the opinion that I assume many other students have right now — this serial killer stuff is too hyped up, especially since he hasn’t murdered any Baton Rouge women lately.
I became more confident in my decision to join the campaign after hearing that one of my co-workers chooses to run alone at 2 a.m. While I don’t think the threat of a serial killer should cause students to live in fear, running alone after dark is unsafe. I also learned that participation in the Wellness Center’s Rape Aggression Defense or RAD classes has dropped. One participant canceled her registration because the murders happened too long ago, according to Kathy Saichuck, the center’s coordinator. We forget too quickly that the person murdering women in the Baton Rouge area still roams freely.
As a member of the Stay Safe campaign, The Reveille becomes another department throwing, safety information and contact numbers in students faces. However, I challenge students to look at the volumes of fliers, posters, bookmarks, stickers and keychains with the Stay Safe logo on them as more than just a waste of paper.
Studies show people remember repeated messages and the purpose behind this campaign is to have students subconsciously remember a phone number or tip in the case of an emergency. We are trying convince the campus community to stay safe.