WHEN I returned home from college for winter break after three months of being on my own last year, everyone in the world wanted to know what the University was like. "It's great!" I would say. "Except ... it's sort of like living in a bubble. A little U.Va bubble where your life revolves only around school all the time." It is true that college is some sort of strange parallel universe. Everywhere you have to go and everything you could possibly need can be found within a two mile radius (perfect, since you have to walk everywhere). Life consists only of the University, and the harm of the outside world becomes only a distant memory.
This fall, that protective bubble burst when I moved into Lambeth Field Apartments. For the most part, the living situation is great -- the apartments are decent and the people who occupy them are sociable. There is only one problem - it's not very safe, due to the lack of emergency telephones.
Blue emergency phones can be found near all the first-year dorms. As a matter of fact, new free-standing blue phones, situated closer to the paths leading to the dorms, were installed recently in the new dorms area. "We talked with the students before the installation of the phones and decided the appropriate amount and location for them together," Housing Director Mark Doherty said in a phone interview. Most of the other options for on-Grounds upperclass housing -- such as Gooch-Dillard, Brown College and Hereford College -- have emergency phones. With so much attention lately towards increased safety at the University, a blue emergency phone for every three or four buildings in Lambeth is not an unreasonable request.
Doherty says there is a possibility that emergency phones may be installed in Lambeth this summer. However, this promise of new emergency phones next year is not reassuring for the many residents, such as myself, who live there now.
Lambeth forms the barrier between what is considered on and off-Grounds. Ten feet beyond it and you are heading down Route 29, away from the University and its mysterious Biodome-like shield. Because it is a substantial distance down Emmet Street, Lambeth is secluded and blends into the town. This makes it incredibly easy for crime to occur. Despite this fact, in the whole vicinity of Lambeth Field, only three emergency telephones currently exist.
Lambeth may appear pleasant during daylight hours, but at night, this cheery atmosphere quickly becomes eerie. By 9 p.m., the area is completely silent, except for the occasional rumbling of a passing train. Even worse, only half of the Lambeth apartment buildings are well-lit, and this is only true since repairs were made to their decrepit stairs this past summer. The side of Lambeth where I live, affectionately nicknamed "The Ghetto," is ominously dark. Not until next summer will the stairs to the opposite side of Lambeth finally be repaired, and bring some well-deserved light.
Although the addition of bright lights in Lambeth is a step in the right direction, it does not change the area's need for increased safety. Lambeth has become infamous for being a popular crime sight. Just last February, two masked men strolled through the door of a Lambeth suite and forced four male residents to give them them their wallets and a watch. According to Captain Mike Coleman of the University Police, five crimes have been reported in the Lambeth area since the beginning of the school year, four of those being larcenies to vehicles in the parking lot. Five crimes within a span of a little over a month does not give the impression that Lambeth is a safe place to live.
Even though Lambeth is known for being the scene of constant crimes, the area has a whopping three telephones, all of which are regular touch-tone phones with no automatic connection to the police station. The newer, "blue light" emergency telephones possess a red emergency button, which connects directly to the University Police when pushed. Even the older emergency phones, attached to buildings such as the ones in Gooch-Dillard and some of the new dorms, dial the police when someone picks up the receiver. By comparison, there is no quick, easy button to push on the Lambeth phones, and therefore, they can hardly be called "emergency" phones, because an emergency is unplanned and urgent, and even dialing 911 may take too long.
This is not the only problem. Even more troubling is the location of these "emergency" telephones. One is situated next to the staircase behind the Colonnades, and a second can be found at the back door of Lambeth Commons. These are important places to have phones due to the seclusion of the area, but they are far away from the Lambeth apartments. The third phone is located in front of Lambeth Commons, in a corner formed by two adjoining brick walls, next to the doors that lead into the convenience store. Even though this location is central to Lambeth Field, it is a horrible place to have a telephone. If, by chance, the person being attacked is able to reach the phone, she will have to first stop and dial 911, and inevitably be backed into a dark corner. With 25 buildings holding anywhere from 24 to 64 students each, two phones for the whole Lambeth area is hardly acceptable.
I know I am no longer a first-year student and do not need to be "babied". I am perfectly capable of cooking my own meals, cleaning my own apartment, and solving my own problems. However, it is good to feel a sense of security at times, and emergency telephones are needed immediately to provide that. Sometimes a protective bubble is a good thing to have.
(Michelle Drucker is a Cavalier Daily viewpoint writer.)
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