In the small town of Charleston, it seems that one’s safety is not often threatened. Students go away to college and often feel protected by a bubble, not realizing all the dangers that occur on a typical college campus. After the recent murder of Shannon McNamara in her apartment, 1125 Fourth St., on June 12 students returning to Eastern seem to have safety on their top list of concerns.

Lt. John Hatfill from the University police department said since the recent tragedy in the death of an Eastern student officers have put on more safety awareness programs for students.

“The murder is still fresh in everyone’s mind, and will dissipate with time,” said Hatfill. “Any time you have something like that happen they(students) are going to be concerned for an amount of time. It’s only natural.”

Many students have expressed their feelings on how safe they feel on campus. Chandi Daugherty, a sophomore family consumer science major said her biggest fear is getting attacked.

“I make a note of who is around me,” Daugherty said. ” At night I make sure I have someone with me.”

Daugherty said she does not even know what the police department does to help ensure campus safety.

“They need to make it apparent to students at EIU what they are doing to make Eastern a safer place.” she said.

Jodi Bauer, a sophomore family consumer science major said that where she is from, you don’t think twice about where you walk around.

“Here at Eastern, especially this year you do think about,” said Bauer. “When I was a freshman I thought it couldn’t happen to me. I had heard Eastern had the safest campus.”

Desiree Collado, a junior family consumer major said her biggest fear is someone she doesn’t know coming out from nowhere.

“During the day I feel fine, but at night I call first to tell people if I am coming. Collado said. “Walking out to the parking lot makes me scared.”

She said it would be helpful if the police department could drive around more at night.

“Right now we have increased the number of officers on shift. There are anywhere from six to nine officers during the 9 p.m. to 3 p.m. power shift, depending on what night. There is an overlap and two officers are on duty the rest of the night from 3 a.m. until 7 a.m.”

Hatfill said the lighting situation on Eastern’s campus has greatly improved since he first started in 1989.

“12 years ago it was a dark campus.” he said. “EIU also has 19 emergency phones available.”

“We have officers on bike patrol, in dorms, and in academic buildings.” said Hatfill. “As far as off-campus, we haven’t increased patrol.”

He said late at night officers are available for students to provide an escort service for students so they can walk from an academic building to a dorm.

“I’ve noticed students walking in pairs.” said Hatfill. “Maybe students are not aware of the service because we get less than one call per week.”

Click here for more information on Eastern’s safety