CAUTION: HIGH CRIME AREA

A spate of violent crimes, including the brutal, fatal stabbing of a feminist legal scholar studying at Radcliffe's Bunting Institute, led this spring to a heightened awareness of issues of safety in Cambridge.

Bunting Fellow Mary Joe Frug, who was 49, was killed at night on her way to a convenience store in Cambridge's wealthy and well-known Brattle St. neighborhood. That slaying, which came hard on the heels of a reported rape in Harvard-owned housing on Linnaean St., had students and faculty alike asking questions about crime, safety, security and vulnerability.

Am I safe? Can I walk alone at night? Is the University doing its best to address issues of safety?

These were questions on the minds of students surveyed by the College Special Committee on Security, which tried to answer these inquiries in a report issued this spring.

The committee, composed of students and administrators, recommended several measures that would improve campus security, including better-lit pathways, more foot patrols and heightened students awareness of crime.

Harvard University Police Chief Paul E. Johnson says the heightened awareness which has led to the questioning, along with more requests for escort service and extra patrols, is "absolutely a good thing."

He added, though, that "the way it happened is of course unfortunate."

'Unlocked Doors'

Johnson says he hopes the recent surge of student concern about campus crime will translate into more active crime prevention habits among the student body. While violent assaults drew the most press attention, the most common crime Harvard police dealt with in 1990 was larceny, Johnson says.

Johnson chalked many of the thefts up to "unlocked doors." And the committee report backed him up, saying their survey determined "a high correlation between the number of incidents of theft and unlocked doors."

"It makes it so easy for people who prey upon the University," Johnson says.

Pilot Programs

This summer, according to Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57, the College will institute a pilot program of electronic ID-card access to dormitory and house entryways. The College hopes the switch will eliminate the problems of propped open entryway doors and key-copying.

"Designated pathways"--clear, well-lit, heavily used routes for night foot travel--are another recommendation of the security committee. The pathways "would be highlighted on the student directory maps, providing clear guidelines for travelling from one campus location to another," the report says. Already, the committee's report also resulted in the installation of brighter lights in the Yard.

In addition, Johnson says the Harvard University Police Department is "in the process of adding more officers," to bring the force up to its full authorized strength within six months to a year.

To allay immediate student fears, the police added regular walking patrols in the Yard, river and quad areas. Also, Johnson says, "we now have two full-time drivers on the escort service." Shrill alarms have been made available for $6 at Police headquarters, University Hall and Radcliffe Yard.

These efforts notwithstanding, the debate over what Harvard can do to fight crime will likely rage on. Administrators such as Jewett and President Derek C. Bok argue that ultimately there's only so much a University can do. If students walk alone at night and leave doors unlocked, they should realize that their safety and property are not guaranteed, they say.

Administrators add that even if a 24-hour, perfectly safe campus were attainable, it would come at either prohibitive cost or inconvenience.

Students answer these arguments with their own, saying the University can do more. In particular, many cite the example of the escort service as an area where Harvard has devoted insufficient resources to keeping its students safe. And the success of such events at Take Back the Night, a week-long program on crime and safety organized by students, suggests that undergraduates are becoming more willing to take matters into their own hands.

And taking matters into their own hands may be just what they have to do, in the face of an administration reluctant to play bodyguard on a city campus.