Not A Friendly Little Village

A recent spate of crime on and near campus should above all remind the Harvard community that an inherent level of danger is built into the Cambridge environment. Clearly, Harvard is not located within a violent inner city. Cambridge is nowhere near as dangerous as many American metropolises or other college campuses. Even so, the sooner that we collectively realize that we do not live in a quaint village ruled by the University, the sooner we can all take actions that help keep us safe.

As the Harvard University Police Department so often reminds students, we live in an “urban environment” and must face up to this reality. Given a recent uptick in armed robberies, an increased police presence was of course the right move. More resources should continue to be poured into active policing, but students must also adjust their attitudes and behavior in light of these events.

The group of undergraduates who recently launched a petition calling for the Yard to be closed off at night should be commended for voicing their concerns through this format. Students should feel empowered to speak up more often about threats to their safety. In terms of the specific actions they suggest, we do not think that limiting access to the Yard after sundown so that only those bearing Harvard I.D.s can enter would offer a solution in itself to the greater problem. However, this might very well improve safety in the Yard at night, something that has naturally come into focus after the recent armed robbery outside Thayer Hall.

Harvard could do more to remind students about the existence of resources such as the Harvard University Campus Escort Program and blue light phones. Undergraduates would be doing themselves and their peers a service by using HUCEP—a campus safety initiative that provides student escorts who walk University affiliates to their destinations during the night—more often, whether or not this current rate of crime persists. Even if students do not feel they need to utilize HUCEP, they should still do so in order to legitimize the service across campus.

As a community, we must remember to applaud HUPD for responding by upping its visibility and number of police officers. The quantity of arrests last week and the fact that the recent armed-robbery attempt on Brattle Street was foiled by a police officer show that sincere efforts are already being made to reduce crime. Although students do have serious grounds for concern, these events do not merit hysteria. The fact that Cambridge is not an isolated village but instead an extension of Boston’s urban setting simply means that we should behave more as we would in the heart of a big city and so take more vigilant precautions.