Having a car is wonderful. Losing a car hurts. Having someone steal your car is worse than misplacing it in a gargantuan parking lot, though. Officials at the school say that MHCC’s parking lots are real targets for thieves, by their simple existence. We are a commuter school, they say, making us prime targets for car thieves.

Deterring theft is not entirely up to public safety. They have plenty of things to do, including looking out for criminals. The issue has been addressed countless times, and the answer is always, “get The Club” and “don’t leave valuables in plain sight.” Common sense tells us that, but students at MHCC need to feel that their belongings are safe on campus. If they don’t, they might not come anymore.

Guarding the parking lots is not a big priority for MHCC, even though it is on the school’s to-do list. There just isn’t any money. Students who care about each other and their school might choose to look elsewhere for the level of safety they need to feel.

Although installing cameras may do something, unless ASG decides to purchase, monitor and maintain those cameras, it is not a feasible option when there is such a crunch on the school and many more important things to do. Even if cameras are a nice thought, there is little the school can do to acquire them. What can students do, besides using common sense?

Those who use the parking lots have an obligation to themselves and each other when they are going to and from their cars. Awareness of your surroundings is a necessity, for your own personal safety. No matter if you just bombed a test or you’re dying to hear what your friend called you in class to tell you, look around. If you see anything you don’t trust, do yourself and everyone else a favor: report it. Public safety can be reached from any campus phone, and in the event of an emergency, dial 33 on those same phones.
The idea was posed last year to begin student bike patrols in the parking lots to ease some of the burden on public safety and to increase safety for students and their possessions.

What ever happened to that? Students helping students is what this school needs.
It seems that the school has not only disconnected from its community, but that it is slowly disconnecting from itself. Instead of a unified, campus wide pride in MHCC, there seems to be bickering among departments, and it is the students who suffer. The administration falls back on a lack of funds as an excuse for this disjointed feel, but a movement among students is what needs to be started. Students helping one another is not a utopia, nor is it a failed mantra from the ‘60s. It is the here and now. Thank you to those who are trying to do something to increase the feeling of well-being on campus, and thank you to the Student Activities Board for working so hard to make us feel unified. What is left is up to you, the individual. Take care of yourselves and each other.