As if I needed one more reason to lock my door.

Last weekend’s assault in Phillips Hall was just that, another reminder that it - whatever it is - could happen to me. It made me realize that you really aren’t 100 percent safe anywhere, and no one precaution is going to completely prevent something bad from happening to you.

As a resident of Mason Hall, the incident was too close to home - I can’t imagine what it must be like for the residents of the victim’s dorm and especially the ones on her floor. When an attack like this takes place next door, crime statistics become more than numbers.

The incident reminded me that crime doesn’t just exist on the news or on the front page of a newspaper. It occurs in real places to real people. When a crime happens near you, it is a loud wake-up call from reality.

Ironically, a similar incident occurred almost exactly a year earlier in the same hall, when a girl was sexually assaulted on Oct. 17, 1999. I lived even closer to it last year, when I was a resident of Snyder Hall, which is connected to Phillips Hall.

The impact of last year’s assault was greater. I was a freshman, unsure of my surroundings, and lived even closer to where it occurred. I came from a town where these types of crimes rarely occur, and the assault was the final step in my realization that I was in a very different place.

What’s more nerve-racking is that the student involved in last year’s assault did something I do every night. In the middle of almost every night, I wake up to go to the bathroom, and I leave my door unlocked until I return. But I have never returned to an intruder in my room - the girl in Phillips Hall was not so lucky.

Both assaults have made me feel like my safety is not a matter of being cautious, but rather a matter of luck. Has my door handle been tested by the same intruder that found his way into the room of the other girls? It’s not likely, but I can’t help but wonder. And if it has been, why was I lucky enough to have my door locked at these times when the other girls didn’t? After all, it’s not like they deserved what happened to them because they forgot to lock their door. I do it all the time.

My overactive imagination can’t help but conjure up a preposterous idea that the assault is going to become some kind of sick tradition that occurs every year. This, of course, is due to watching too many horror movies over the years and the approaching Halloween holiday, but I can’t help but feel like there is something too coincidental about it happening twice in the same hall at the same time of year.

After each attack, rumors have begun circulating that have done nothing to quell my irrational fears. Aside from an article in this newspaper the day after it happened, I have heard nothing about what exactly occurred, which only heightens the anxiety of those living in the complex.

For example, police have said that it wasn’t a sexual assault, but according to some of the rumors I have heard, it was. Other rumors have been circulating about residents recently hearing someone testing their doors to see if they are locked.

It is understandable that these rumors circulate very quickly when a large group of worried young people are together in a small space. The story has a good chance to be completely twisted around when it is passed around in the cafeteria and from roommate to roommate.

But the police and North Complex staff have not done much to educate students about what happened and what can be done to prevent it in the future, if anything. I completely understand and respect the victim’s right to privacy, but not talking about what happened is not the best way to move on.

The community police officers in the building should try to reach out to students to help quell their fears and give them advice about how to prevent it from happening again. A question and answer forum with police or members of Residence Life would be helpful, and not just for the people who live on the floor of the attack. If other MSU students are anything like me, they are growing concerned about the assaults taking place in residence halls.

Talking about crime, whether it is sexual assault or breaking and entering, is the initial step in its prevention. The assault in Phillips Hall is a big deal. It was a life-changing experience for the victim, and it happened on this campus. It should be treated like one, not shoved under the rug.

I urge my fellow residents to, of course, lock their doors and also to stop propping open the side doors. It just doesn’t make sense that residents keep doing it even after these two assaults have occurred.

Students should also talk about what happened, whether it is with a police officer or a mentor or another student. It is a big deal, and while I hope it never does, it could happen to you. Or me.

Jessi Phillips is the State News opinion writer whose column appears every Monday. She can be reached at phill241@msu.edu.