Shaw Hall will host a series of pro-active events to inform residents about safety issues during Security Awareness Week.
The event is sponsored by Shaw Hall's Residence Life staff. The week of events began Monday and ends Friday.
Tracy Bobertz, complex director of Shaw Hall, spearheaded the campaign, which is in its first year, with a committee of mentors from the hall. Bobertz also said the committee came up with three important safety issues it wanted to tackle.
"Our effort is a really fine balance of not scaring people, but trying to create a safe, simulated experience that will get the residents thinking," she said.
The first program, called Gotcha, is aimed at teaching students the importance of locking doors when exiting their rooms.
Beginning Monday, hall mentors walked various floors in the residence hall. If officials saw anybody walk out of his or her room without locking the door, they slipped a flier underneath the door that reads "Gotcha your door was unlocked." The flier also contains various dorm-related crime statistics on rape, assault and burglaries.
Melanie Grooms, a member of the mentor committee coordinating the project, said the mentors will walk down the halls early in the morning and late at night every day this week because, according to mentors, students have a tendency to leave their doors unlocked during those times.
"I think it's a new, creative way to handle such a serious situation," Grooms said. "This will be an in your face experience which will make a difference."
The second program, called Stranger Danger, will encourage students to confront strangers roaming their hallways late at night.
Hall mentors are planning on dressing a person in suspicious looking clothing and sending him or her to roam freely throughout the dorm. If a student from a particular hallway confronts the stranger, and yells, "Stranger danger," the student will receive a candy bar.
The final program of the week is called Sexual Assault Awareness. This program will be hosted by the Sexual Assault Crisis and Safety Education program. The event will discuss sexual assault and the resources available on campus to help cope with the issue.
Although mentors at the hall are very enthusiastic about a week's worth of programming, some students are questioning their efficiency.
"I think it's a good idea," special education-learning disabilities junior Eric Stiegel said. "But I don't think college students will take it seriously. They will probably just blow it off."
