Denise Prichard walks from her class by Hayden Library to her apartment at Rural and Terrace roads each night wondering whether she'll arrive home unharmed.
"I look behind me occasionally to make sure no one is chasing after me," said Prichard, a public relations sophomore. "You just have to make sure you're aware of your surroundings."
After spring break, Undergraduate Student Government officials will launch a safety campaign to inform students how to improve their safety on and off campus, said Liz Simonhoff, USG vice president.
"The Safety Escort Service has been used kind of as a taxi service," she said. "We're going to create biking escorts and post professional signage around campus."
The Safety Escort Service is a free form of on-campus transportation for students, faculty and staff. But the organization does not offer rides to off-campus locations.
Students can also use Flash, a city of Tempe shuttle service, and Valley Metro, Phoenix's public transportation system, to travel between campus and their residence, Simonhoff said.
But many students do not use public transportation because it can be confusing, Prichard said.
USG members make a strong effort to ensure the safety of students who live off campus by indirectly working with Tempe city police who collaborate with the ASU police department, Simonhoff said.
To ensure student safety, ASU should place a greater emphasis on providing on-campus housing for upper-classmen, Prichard said.
"They're building all these dorms, but they're all for freshmen," she said. "A lot of students can't afford to live off campus."
For those students who live off campus, the Tempe Police Department makes efforts of its own to be sure students remain safe when they step off campus, said Tempe Police spokesman Brandon Banks.
"We have an off-campus crime prevention unit," he said. "Officers in the unit address special quadrants."
The unit provides security tips to residents during seminars at apartment complexes in Tempe, Banks said.
Some apartment complexes have their own courtesy patrol to protect residents.
Desert Palm Village, located at the crossroads of East Vista Del Cerro Drive and Rural Road, where nearly 85 percent of residents are students, employs safety patrol officers who watch the complex throughout the day, said manager Kelly Colley.
But security at apartment complexes can be breached, Prichard said.
"My apartment complex doesn't have very good security," she said. "There's no one really around, and it's not gated."
The best way to prevent break-ins and avoid the resulting trouble is to be conscious of habits, Prichard added.
"I do a lot of checks around my apartment," she said. "I check my doors a lot to make sure they're locked."
Off-campus housing safety is an issue that has rarely been addressed as a concern for ASU students, Simonhoff said.
"If there is a demand for an improvement in off-campus safety, then we would be willing to address it," she said. "It is an initiative that will be looked at in the future. So far, students have been very responsive to the idea."
Reach the reporter at: gary.levison@asu.edu.
