SU’s Blue Light Special
How Women View, Speak, and Question Safety at Susquehanna University
Shining a light on Women’s Safety
For many students that attend Susquehanna University, the campus has become a home away from home. Personally, I value community greatly and was fortunate enough to receive that and more. However, there have been moments where myself and other students questioned if our safety was being prioritized. As a female living on a college campus, it is a common and shared experience that all female and female identifying students know too well. The fear of walking home at night by yourself, the unwanted leering eyes watching you as you walk by, always making sure you have some form of protection ready at hand, calling a friend on your late night walk home, or waiting for someone to pick you up are many tactics women at SU use to protect themselves when venturing through campus.
Although students have been informed repeatedly by administration, public safety, and even the University’ President that they are doing everything in their power to ensure women and all students are protected on campus, it still does not extinguish the fears many female students still have on campus. Female students now more then ever have to not only fight for their right to feel safe, but also worry about social repercussions, the lack of support from the University for its female victims, and the push for stricter punishments against perpetrators toward the female student body.
Student Handbooks
Susquehanna University Student Handbook 1925-1926
Susquehanna during 1925-1926 had rules for both its male and female students in regards to curfew, mandatory chapel services during the week and weekends, and other rules the school deemed important for students to follow. When looking at rules for female students, they included “Girls may not leave campus without permission”, “Girls may not go down or out of town after supper without a chaperone”, and “Girls are positively not allowed to enter or leave the building except by the main entrance.”
These rules are a product of their time. Seeing female students as fragile, innocent, and they needed to be protected and supervised on a daily basis. Women going to college was still a fairly new shift in the societal dynamic of the old beliefs that the woman stays home and raises a family. The University has these tight restrictions on its female students for the their own safety so their families would not worry while they are living away from the security of home.
Susquehanna University Handbook 1950-1951
From 1950-1951, the University still maintained many of the same rules that were listed in the earlier student handbooks. The main difference being that female students had more freedoms to leave campus, but only on the premise that they must sign out of their dorms and get written permission from their parents and to be approved by the Dean of Women. This is to keep track when women were coming and going in the dormitory, where they were staying, how long they will be gone, and when they would be returning.
1925-26
AWS: The Association of Women Students
AWS Yearbook Picture 1969
The chapter officially began its time at Susquehanna in November of 1967. The club was organized under the principle of the liberation of women from preconceived ideas of how they should act, behave, or present themselves. As a product of post-Vietnam war and female liberation movements, the club pushed for gender equality on campus, and worked with the Student Government Association in 1974-1975 to create a series of open discussions called the Sexuality Series. Clubs such as the AWS and others that followed after it have now given women more of a voice on campus to speak on what they feel is unjust, to question campus authority, and to continue to look for areas at Susquehanna for women to live there safely and as equals.
Protests: 2012-2018
The Voices of SU Women
The best way to understand how the women of Susquehanna University feel about their safety, or lack of safety is to read their statements. I have collected statements from a wide variety of current female students and alumnae. Their stories, experiences, and opinions I believe needed to be shared to a much wider audience.
“I personally have felt very safe however I have some women close to me who have had run-ins with men who made them very uncomfortable”
FIRST-YEAR
2023
“One time my friends and I were walking to a party, and we were walking on a sidewalk and a guy pulled up by us and asked us to get in. We continued walking to the party and as we were getting closer the man looped around campus and tried again to ask us to get into his car.”
senior
2020
“Some guys can act as predators when going out… guys will holler obscene things while passing by girls at night during weekends going out.”
junior
2021
“I was assaulted by an ex, his family well known and my trial was postponed numerous times and then finally scheduled for the day after he graduated. When asked what the point was for holding a trial after graduation I was told “to get justice” but there would be no consequence he would still walk… so I cancelled it all and moved on with my life. I would like to hope it wasn’t about image and that the trial actually took a long time to process … but you can never be 100% positive.”
alumnae
“After being assaulted by two people on campus, neither of which were reprimanded by the university for what they did, I no longer felt as if I was safe, or even cared for, on campus. The only accommodations the university gave to me was to move me out of my residence hall. Neither of these times did I feel respected or listened to. My academics suffered as well as my mental health, and I felt as if I could not trust the school with bringing issues to them.”
junior
2021
“My first semester, I was faced with a Title IX incident where someone who I considered to be a friend nearly assaulted me, and then continued to harass me afterwards, extending into the next semester… I think we need a real blue light system, and I think we need to offer more apparent support for victims. ”
sophomore
2022
“it was during Greek life recruitment in the spring of my freshman year. I was walking by myself back to smith Hall from Siebert at night (not extremely late but it was dark) and I walked past a man who then proceeded to turn around and follow me until he saw that was holding my pepper spray and that I took out my phone call someone because I felt unsafe.”
sophomore
2022
“I was sexually assaulted at a fraternity party and left that night with bruises on my body. This man was a former football player which made the dean think more highly of him. They felt that the bruises were not substantial enough so he just got verbal reprimanded even though he was found guilty during my trail with staff members. The school really let me down during this moment and since then I have felt very unsafe on campus because I know that I am my only advocate.”
junior
2021
“We NEED more blue lights all over campus. We call ourselves a “blue light campus” but by definition we aren’t.”
alumnae
“I was assaulted back when I was a freshman. I felt like back then especially my class received no education on sexual assault prevention and it really failed I feel like a number of girls in my grade. Including myself.”
senior
2020