If the university is seeing a rather constant increase in the student population each year, the MSU police and the university should be prepared for possible bicycle thefts on campus.

The more students on campus, the more bicycles there are and the higher the possibility of students having their bicycles stolen.
It’s as simple as that.

For a campus that is 5,200 acres, MSU should provide student cyclists with more bicycle racks, especially on the edges of campus where classroom buildings and dormitories are located.

When the university plans to continue limiting parking and always encourages environmentally friendly transportation, it should be important to the university to make sure students are able to commute and travel easily — part of that is being able to securely park one’s bicycle.

If the university is able to spend millions of dollars on renovating cafeterias and updating classroom buildings, it should have no problem purchasing and installing more bicycle racks on campus.

The university has updated bicycle racks around campus with the inverted loop racks over the years, which is great.

But the amount of bicycle racks on campus seems inadequate for the large student population, especially when students are locking up their bicycles to chain-link fences around Berkey Hall or to trees around campus.

With less than ideal bike parking, students should take precautions.
The responsibility of making sure a bicycle does not get stolen falls nearly entirely on the bicycle’s owner; the MSU police can not stake out by every bicycle rack on campus and make sure that every bicycle is locked up and theft-free.

Find time to register your bicycle with the MSU police, so they can have your bicycle on file. Registering your bicycle does not guarantee its safety, but it can give you hope of being reunited with your means of transportation around campus should anything happen to it.

It is very difficult for the university and the MSU police to take full responsibility for every student bicycle on campus, especially when more than 47,000 students go here. The MSU police might not be the most efficient and that can be frustrating, but even the best public safety departments can’t catch every criminal who commits a crime. Students are responsible to take simple measures to protect their property such as a chain lock.

If worse comes to worst and the MSU police are unable to recover your stolen bicycle, walking is always an option, or you can purchase a bus pass. But students shouldn’t be forced to make that decision.

Biking is a great means of free transportation around campus. The university needs to be more accommodating for students choosing this option.