Darkness fills the walkway on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022 near the Quad in Baton Rouge, La.
A student walks through the hallways on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, in the Quad in Baton Rouge, La.
Lack of lighting and other safety hazards leave some LSU women feeling unsafe on campus.
Being a woman can be horrifying when you realize the amount of violence that young girls and women endure.
We live in a society where women don’t feel safe walking, running or even going to the bathroom alone. At Louisiana’s flagship university, women frequently report feeling afraid on campus at night.
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“During the day, I don’t have a problem, but at night, it’s definitely stressful,” said kinesiology freshman Riley Lagasse. “Even walking from Miller [Hall] to Azalea [Hall] is scary, because you don’t know who's in between cars or if someone is hiding under cars because there’s not that many streetlights.”
Students are especially on edge with recent crime reports. In September, LSU senior Allison Rice was shot dead in her car on Government Street, and earlier that month, the LSU Police Department arrested 19-year-old Daniel Cressy in connection with the rape of a female student in the Nicholson Gateway Apartments.
More questions of student safety arise from LSU’s most recent biannual Title IX report, which was released in April.
Between October 2021 and March 2022, the Title IX Office received 182 reports, including 49 rape cases, 28 dating violence cases and 23 stalking cases.
165 of those cases — over 90% — were closed without disciplinary action.
And 45% of complaints were closed because the complainant was unresponsive, 22% because the complainant requested supportive measures only and 15% because the complainant requested no further action, according to the report.
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While survivors have the right to close their report with no further action, these numbers beg the question: Do survivors trust the school to properly investigate and hear their cases?
It seems LSU still has a long way to go to build the trust of students after two years of harrowing Title IX revelations.
In November 2020, USA TODAY released a bombshell report that highlighted systemic mishandling of sexual and domestic violence cases by university officials, especially those in athletics.
In October 2021, an investigation by The Advocate revealed how LSU grad student Edouard d'Espalungue d'Arros repeatedly avoided consequences for reports of sexual violence. The university allowed d'Espalungue to be around LSU students and high schoolers even after his 2018 rape arrest in Rapides Parish and amid mounting reports of sexual misconduct at LSU.
Six women filed a federal lawsuit in October 2021 saying the university did little or nothing to address their sexual assault and harassment reports against d'Espalungue.
Despite remaining Title IX tensions on campus, LSU broke ties in August with Sexual Trauma Awareness Response , a non-profit it had contracted to provide trainings to employees.
It’s disheartening for the university to discontinue these services and for students to potentially suffer because of it, especially amid continued concerns about Title IX and sexual violence on campus. This choice raises serious questions about how seriously LSU takes sexual violence after the buzz of its scandal's fades.
Women, who were overwhelmingly the victims of violations outlined in the biannual report, shouldn’t have to live in fear on campus. Some residents in Miller Hall, the only all-women’s dorm on campus, expressed concerns about campus safety.
Darkness fills the walkway on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022 near the Quad in Baton Rouge, La.
“I feel like we could use more streetlights, like there’s a lot of dark places on campus,” said Lagasse. “I feel like there should be a place on campus where you can buy self-defense stuff, like pepper spray, birdies and keychains.”
When I look out of my window at Miller, I find a pitch-black parking lot outside. It makes me not want to go out at night unless I’m in a group because I can’t see anything or anyone around me. Most of the time, I choose not to walk at night because I don’t feel safe. LSU needs more streetlights for women to feel safer walking around at night.
“I would never walk here around campus at night, because you don’t know what’s happening anymore,” said biological sciences freshman Kate LeCompte. “Baton Rouge is already a scary place, and this is a school. Like I shouldn’t feel scared to walk around my school, but sometimes I am, and it’s really messed up that that’s how I feel.”
LeCompte said she’s frustrated by security levels on campus. While she thinks the self-defense classes offered by the university are great resources, she said a lot of people aren’t aware of them and that people should be encouraged to attend.
A student walks through the hallways on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, in the Quad in Baton Rouge, La.
Though LSU has numerous things to work on regarding safety for women, students should also try to be aware of their surroundings. The LSU Women’s Center director, Summer Steib, said students should take precautions to avoid dangerous situations.
“I think all members of the LSU community can learn more about risk reduction strategies that can be used,” Steib said. “Things like situational awareness, limited distractions when walking on campus, have the LSU Shield app installed and be familiar with how to use it, having keys out, etc.”
If you’re in an environment that doesn’t have the resources or the will to protect you, stand up for yourself, fight the fight and tell your truth. Change can’t simply be said; it must be advocated for and made.
Taylor Hamilton is an 18-year-old mass communication freshman from Tallahassee, Florida.
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