With student enrollment numbers increasing at Ohio University and campuses nearly everywhere, it becomes concerning when students begin to worry about their safety as a result. In 2024, the Athens campus had 22,266 students in total.
In August of 2023, OU welcomed its record-breaking first-year class in Athens. The class of 2027 contained over 4,500 students, breaking the record of the previous year, which contained 4,441 students.
Athens is a unique college town. Where students make up a large majority of the population during the academic months, College Green leads into Uptown. The only separation from the town and the campus is a block or two.
Luckily, the Athens Police Department is also within a few blocks of the academic buildings that are near Uptown, located at 11 N. College St.
Across the country, there has been an uproar over false emergency reports at college campuses. Last month, West Virginia University responded to reports of gunfire. This prompted an emergency response alert telling students to shelter in place.
Less than 30 minutes after the initial alert to students, there was confirmation it was a hoax. Since classes began this year, schools such as the University of Arkansas, the University of Colorado Boulder, Northern Arizona University, Villanova University and Kansas State University all received similar threats.
Due to OU’s nature of events and decades worth of traditions, visitors from all over come to Athens to enjoy Court Street and the town’s charisma. The annual Athens Halloween Block Party has seen crowds as large as 30,000 attend and flood the streets.
OU students and residents understand large events that gather thousands in town, but travelers who have never been in the Athens atmosphere could pose the most threat to students. Although the university has remained on its quest for “people to be visible and valued” on its campuses, its safety standards must be high to protect students against outside forces.
New safety challenges can arise on campus quickly. Unfortunately, new trends can pose a threat to student safety. The rise in active shooter hoaxes on college campuses has skyrocketed in recent years.
An increase in active shooter hoaxes is known as “swatting.” The Department of Homeland Security refers to this when an individual makes “malicious hoax calls to emergency services,” such as falsely reporting a shooting or a bomb.
An increase in security, such as surveillance of each campus green, east, south, north and west, would improve underclassmen’s personal feeling of worry and promote ease. Promoting annual reports of crime statistics also contributes to students’ overall awareness and perception of events occurring on campus.
Transparency among authorities and students should also be a top priority. When alerting students to notify them of threatening and emergency events, the alerts should be timely, accurate and concise to best make students aware.
Students should also be aware of self-defense resources and training to de-escalate a situation. For women on campus, The Rape Aggression Defense System is a program for realistic tactics and techniques. Ohio University Police Department offers the program.
Students share their concerns about campus safety, and it’s up to institutions to work quickly to improve safety measures. It’s their responsibility to provide for students in every way.
The Post editorials are independent of the publication's news coverage. The Post can be reached via editor@thepostathens.com
