Think about how many times you’ve been walking down a dark street alone in Syracuse. You’ve probably been separated from your friends for one reason or another and found yourself as alone as Janet Reno on Valentine’s Day.

Open up your e-mails that the Department of Public Safety (DPS) sends out and you’ll have the information to prepare yourself for this situation. It’s as simple as that. Is this is obvious? Yes. Do you still do it? No.

‘I think it’s unfortunate (that student’s don’t check their e-mails),’ said Michael Rothbun, the DPS assistant director of community policing. ‘I think the alerts serve a very valuable purpose. They inform the student populous and the university community of events that they should be aware of. We send most of them out in the fall because more students are out and about. You’ll find that the numbers tend to go down as the students become accustomed to the university, and they’ll benefit from the e-mails.’

Two Syracuse University students were attacked and robbed on Feb. 15 and Feb.17 and both were walking by themselves. DPS sent out one of these e-mails describing the occurrence, as they usually do, according to an article printed in The Daily Orange on Feb. 25. Even though they only sent out one notification, if they bothered to send out a second, I doubt many would have read it anyways.

‘If I go out with different people and they’re going one place and I’m going home, I’ll just go home alone,’ Greg Huizenga, an aerospace engineering major, said. ‘[The alerts] don’t really alter the way I behave. I just skim through them. You just get mobbed by all these e-mails from everyone in your department, in your school, or from the university. If you get all these e-mails, you’re probably not going to read them all.’

In the same article, a local high school student essentially referred to the DPS notification e-mails as worthless, stating they’ve never read a single one because ‘campus safety isn’t an issue’ for them.

Good for him. I’m glad a senior in high school feels safe taking just one class at SU.

For those who have never seen a single one of these e-mails, know that they’re for your safety. They provide you with a description of what the suspects look like, details about the crime, what time and place it occurred and how many victims there were. Process the information. You never know when you’ll be walking alone in that same exact place.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying these e-mails will save your life. But they help you learn what can happen when you become complacent in certain situations.

After all, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.

Al Ortiz is a junior writing major. His columns appear every week. He can be reached at asortiz@syr.edu.

Published on March 4, 2008 at 12:00 pm