Missing Middlebury's sanctuary of safety

Author: STEPHANIE PRITCHARD '06

When I came to Middlebury as a first-year almost four years ago, we didn't have access cards. Residence Halls were only locked between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. and you used your room key to get into the building. We didn't have blue lights or emergency button call boxes and the red safety phones were more in case of injury than crime. I lived in Stewart Hall and we locked our doors only during vacations. No one thought twice about leaving a backpack unguarded in a computer lab or outside a dining hall and the only things ever stolen were lonesome socks by the washing machines.

Sophomore year I found out that a friend's laptop was taken from his room, and a friend and I had our skis stolen from the back of her car. Other people reported similar thefts of bicycles, jackets and such, but these events were few and far between. We carried access cards so that Public Safety could track those who were entering the buildings. The administration made the hours that dorms were locked longer, eventually locking them for 24 hours a day to keep out the strangers and the absent-minded.

Last year coming back from a fall semester abroad I learned of the "Ross Jangler," who was entering unlocked rooms, and of the debates to add security cameras to the coat racks outside of the dining halls. Blue lights and call boxes speckled the campus and I began to wonder if Middlebury was as safe as we all liked to believe. I locked my door whenever I wasn't in there and sometimes when I was. People lost clothing, iPods, laptops and even cars.

This year has only been worse. I received an e-mail from my dean a few months back that a man not affiliated with the College had been living in one of the lounges of my residence halls. A convicted convict who had been forbidden from setting foot on campus was spotted in Middlebury and women were told to stay away from men matching his description. The Public Safety weekly log is longer than ever, and people are fighting for more blue lights on campus. And most recently, a good friend was in tears because, along with several other peoples' on campus, her backpack was stolen from outside Proctor Dining Hall while she was having dinner. Her laptop, iPod, car keys and wallet were inside.

Middlebury used to be safe. We never imagined that someone in dear, rural Vermont would attempt such a crime. Coming from a suburb of New York City, I always loved the trust we all felt at being able to leave out jackets in a pile at a social house or grab lunch with the confidence that our belongings would still be there waiting for us at the end of the meal. In our naivety, we neglected the fact that no matter how it seems sometimes, not all of us are from small New England towns, and apparently some people in our small bubble-like community don't quite understand the concept of right and wrong or of respecting property.

It's easy to blame outsiders, that it couldn't possibly be a "Midd-kid." Unfortunately, that is probably not the case. It's time we face the reality that we as people and our belongings are not as safe as we would hope in such an intimate setting. Please be careful with your valuables, and if you see a blue Jansport backpack with a bright orange notebook inside, please call me.