The following are general tips about staying safe, but please remember that if you feel unsafe at any time trust your instincts and seek immediate help. Keep in mind that while implementing these strategies may help improve your situation they cannot completely guarantee your safety.
Additional Tips for Students Living on a College Campus
Most sexual assaults are committed by someone the victim knows but some assaults are committed by strangers. How you defend yourself on the street is sometimes different than how you would protect yourself from someone you know. The following is a list of tips to protect yourself against an assault by a stranger:
• When giving someone you know a ride, wait to see them safely inside.
• If you see a woman unable to take care of herself, see that she gets to safety.
• Lock your doors.
• When identifying someone, remember to use all your senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell.
• Call 911 or press the button on a Blue Phone if you feel you are in danger.
• Keep the volume on your headphones low enough so that you can hear noises around you.
• Avoid becoming too engaged in your conversation when talking on your cell phone so that you can pay attention to your surroundings.
• Choose streets or routes that are well lit and familiar when you walk or bike.
• Park your bike or car in well-lit areas.
• Always act on your suspicions. If you think that you are being followed, vary your pace or cross the street. Get to a safe place immediately and arrange for safe transportation the rest of the way home. Try to get a good description of the person following you.
• Your voice is a powerful weapon. Yell from the diaphragm, as it will attract attention and undoubtedly startle an attacker. An alternative to the voice is a whistle.
• Be involved. If you see that someone may be in trouble, get help.
• Avoid isolated places at night. Try to coordinate your nighttime schedule with a friend so that you won’t have to travel alone. Walk with someone else whenever you can.
• When you’re walking, always know where safety is: an open business, a house with lights on, a police cruiser, etc.
• Be particularly cautious about walking alone if you are high or drunk as it increases your vulnerability and decreases your ability to respond. Many attackers look for women who are unable to defend themselves or whose senses may be impaired so as not to be able to protect themselves or make a positive identification.
• Walk confidently. A potential attacker is looking for availability, vulnerability and accessibility.
• There is no set formula for surviving a sexual assault. Assertiveness, being passive, waiting for an opportunity to escape, running, yelling, and physically fighting are all valid forms of self-defense.
• Only offenders can stop rape. There is no guarantee that a person will be able to escape sexual assault if a perpetrator is intent on offending but many do! The responsibility for sexual assault belongs to the sex offender regardless of whether you apply these techniques or not. Simply put, you are NEVER to blame for sexual assault regardless of what you are wearing, doing, or saying.
Additional tips for students living on a college campus**
• Know your campus resources and contact 911 or University Police if you feel unsafe
• Study the campus and neighborhood with respect to routes between your residence and class/activities schedule. Know where emergency phones are located. Change your walking routes so you don’t always travel the same paths.
• Share your class/activities schedule with parents and a network of close friends, effectively creating a type of "buddy" system. Give important telephone numbers to your parents and friends.
• Travel in groups. Use a shuttle service after dark. Avoid walking alone at night. Avoid "shortcuts".
• Survey the campus, academic buildings, residence halls, and other facilities while classes are in session and after dark to see that buildings, walkways, quad-rangles, and parking lots are adequately secured, lit and patrolled. Are emergency phones, escorts, and shuttle services adequate?
• Doors and windows to your residence hall should be equipped with quality locking mechanisms. Room doors should be equipped with peepholes and deadbolts. Always lock them when you are absent. Do not loan out your key. Rekey locks when a key is lost or stolen.
• Always lock your doors and 1st and 2nd floor windows at night. Never compromise your safety for a roommate who asks you to leave the door unlocked.
• Residence Halls should have a central entrance/exit lobby where nighttime access is monitored, as well as an outside telephone that visitors must use to gain access. If these things are absent or aren’t working, talk with an RA or other dorm representative to get them in place.
• Residents of Resident Halls should insist that RAs and security patrols routinely check for "propped doors" - day and night.
• Do not leave your identification, wallets, checkbooks, jewelry, cameras, and other valuables in open view.
• Program your phone's speed dial memory with emergency numbers that include family and friends.
• Know your neighbors and don't be reluctant to report illegal activities and suspicious loitering.
Rape Aggression Defense Programs
The R.A.D. System is the largest women's self defense program in the country. There are over 6,000 certified instructors in the United States and Canada. The program has been taught at more than 1,400 colleges and universities. The University of Iowa offers classes through the Department of Public Safety. All courses are free to University students and have a lifetime free practice and return policy.
http://www.uiowa.edu/~pubsfty/rad.htm
