OPINION: MSU students can still do better

When the university police department released their Annual Security and Fire Safety Report, they reported a significant drop in crime around the board. However, while most of the 88 crimes reported were drug and liquor violations, there were still three reported cases of fondling, four cases of rape, four cases of domestic violence and seven cases of stalking. Anything above zero in any of those categories is too much, and MSU students must be held to that zero tolerance standard. 

There are 6,102 students enrolled at MSU Texas, according to their website, meaning there is a one in 339 chance a student could have been a victim of one of the aforementioned crimes in the past year. However, if that number is narrowed down to the number of students on campus, the chances increase. This isn’t reason for panic, but it is important to look at these matters with the perspective that it could happen to anyone, even on a campus as relatively small as MSU’s.

The university and police department have both taken steps to educate and inform students on how to avoid situations and people that could put them at risks of being a victim of sex crimes or domestic abuse. However great and effective these steps may be, ultimately the responsibility to keep the campus safe falls on the shoulders of its students. Students must make the commitment to analyze their own actions and the actions of their friends and decide if anyone is being harmed by their actions. If a student sees one of their peers put in a situation where they are clearly uncomfortable, it is up to that student to find a way to intervene.