Personal Safety

Make it a habit to be cautious around campus, in buildings, and in transit. Public Safety hopes you will make the following steps part of your daily routine.

Around Campus

Walk safely. Don’t walk alone at night, especially in dark, vacant areas. Avoid shortcuts. If you must walk alone, proceed directly to your destination on well-lit paths. Look alert; be aware of your surroundings. Leave buildings on the hour or the half-hour, when most people are walking. Ask a friend to walk with you.

After 12:30 am and until daylight during the academic year Public Safety will provide a walking escort to students who are concerned about safety from academic buildings to residence halls as well as from the parking lots. Campus emergency response and investigations have priority over escorts and therefore delays are possible. Public Safety provides this service on a first come, first served basis as staffing allows.

Public Safety advises students who are concerned about their walking safety on campus at night to walk with a friend, let their roommate know that they are leaving a building and will be arriving in a specific time frame, or walk on the hour or half hour when there is more campus pedestrian traffic. As always, Public Safety encourages members of the community to report suspicious behavior by calling x2304 or x1-911. (Dial 413-538-2304 from a cell phone when on campus.) Officers are on patrol 24 hours a day and will respond quickly to emergencies. Campus safety is a partnership between the community and the department. Working together we can keep Mount Holyoke safe.

  • Know where emergency blue-light phones are along the path to your destination.
  • Help others walk safely. Team up with another person walking alone at night.
  • Use safety escorts. Public Safety will transport students at night from any of our parking lots to their residence hall when safety is a concern. The student should use the blue-light phone in the lot to call for a ride. This service is only available at night and is not available for groups. Campus emergency response always has a higher priority so Public Safety advises the student to wait in her car until the officer enters the lot. Flash your vehicle lights when the cruiser enters the lot. The officer will pick you up at your vehicle.
  • Don’t jog alone in remote areas during the day and never jog alone at night.
  • Carry a whistle or other device that makes noise and keep it ready to use.
  • Don’t hitchhike. Ask a friend for a ride or use the Five College bus.
  • Report suspicious people or circumstances to Public Safety.
  • Don’t sunbathe in remote areas.
  • Carry your cell phone and program Public Safety's phone number (413-538-2304).

In Buildings

  • Report burned-out lights to Facilities Management or, after 4:30 pm, to Public Safety.
  • Don’t get on an elevator with a stranger.
  • Always leave room doors and windows locked. Draw shades at night.
  • Don’t let strangers into your room. Meet visitors and delivery people at the main door. They can phone you from the entrance by using the access phones (outside each residence hall).
  • Never prop open doors outside residence halls or other buildings.
  • Don’t allow strangers into the residence hall.
  • Sometimes people you don’t know will try to enter with you after you open the door. Ask them to use the access phone to have their guest meet them. If they continue into the building, call Public Safety.
  • If you are comfortable doing so, make it your business to ask a stranger in your building if you may be of any assistance. If the answer is hostile, evasive, or otherwise unsatisfactory, call Public Safety.
  • Keep an eye out. When the campus is relatively empty, know who should be in the residence hall or office and watch out for one another. 
  • The campus card access system limits entrance to most academic buildings between 6:00 pm and 2:00 am; only community members holding valid access cards can access buildings unless an event is scheduled that may involve off-campus participants.
  • Don’t leave valuables visible.
  • Lock your door. This is the best deterrent to the casual thief. It takes only about eight seconds for someone to walk into an open room and take something. Even if you are only going to the bathroom or into the room next door, lock your door.
  • Keep your keys and One Card. Don’t lend your keys or One Card to anyone; others may not be as careful with them as you are or may forget to lock your room. Do not leave keys or your One Card unattended in public places or leave them in the pockets of something you are not wearing. Someone might take an imprint of your keys, have duplicate keys made, and return them later so you will not be suspicious. Since One Cards can have value added to them like a debit card, if someone finds or steals your One Card they may also use the money you have placed on your card. If you are entrusted with the use of a room or area containing College property, be especially careful with the keys and the property. Never let anyone else use keys for which you are responsible and make sure to lock the area before you leave. If your keys or One Card are lost or stolen, notify Public Safety, your head resident, the One Card office, or Facilities Management.
    Just like a credit card, your One Card should be deactivated as soon as it is lost or stolen.
  • Participate in Operation Identification. Operation Identification is a nationwide crime prevention program. The program involves permanently marking your valuables with your driver’s license number and state and recording identification information with Public Safety. This program not only deters theft by making stolen property more difficult to sell and easier to identify but also expedites insurance claims in the event of a loss. This program is available to all members of the Mount Holyoke College community, and all students, faculty, and staff members are encouraged to participate. Participants use portable electric engravers (which may be borrowed from Public Safety at no cost) to engrave identifying numbers on items of value. Call Public Safety for more information.

In Transit

  • Watch for strangers around your car before entering your vehicle. Look around the vehicle from the ground up and front to back. Use caution when your vehicle is parked next to other cars or vans. Look inside your car before getting in.
  • Play it safe on the road. While driving, keep doors locked and windows up. Do not pick up hitchhikers.
  • If another driver harasses you, blow your horn continuously to attract attention and discourage the other driver. Drive to a police station or Public Safety if necessary.
  • Park safely. Park in a lighted area. Between 12:30 am and 6:00 am, call x2304 or use a blue-light phone for an escort from the lot to your residence hall.
  • Wear your seatbelt. Massachusetts has enacted a mandatory seatbelt law; failure to use your seatbelt could result in a fine of $25.

Weapons

  • Don’t carry firearms. Massachusetts law forbids everyone except law enforcement officers to have a firearm on a college campus. Massachusetts also has a mandatory jail sentence for the unauthorized possession of a firearm, rifle, or shotgun.
  • The College does not allow students, faculty, staff, or visitors to carry, possess, or store dangerous weapons, as defined by Massachusetts law, on the campus. Questions about any type of weapons can be answered by Public Safety.
  • Don’t carry other weapons unless you know how to use them—they can be used against you. Instead, take advantage of self-defense classes. The Department of Public Safety, in conjunction with the Department of Physical Education, offers a course in self-defense for women, Rape Aggression Defense (RAD), and key chain self-defense workshops. In addition, students may join the Campus Karate Club led by Public Safety staff.

Protection of Property

  • Take steps to protect your belongings. Most theft on campus is opportunistic—someone sees an unlocked room or vehicle and takes advantage.
    A surprising amount of theft takes place while the victim is on the floor but has just stepped out for a minute.

Automobiles

  • Register your car with Public Safety and with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at the Public Safety office.
  • Park in well-lit areas.
  • Remove keys and lock doors.
  • Install antitheft devices (locks, alarms) for ignition, steering wheel, and brake and clutch pedals.
  • Lock valuables and purchases in the trunk; don’t leave them visible.
  • Record serial numbers of CD players, cellular phones, GPS devices, satellite radios, and other easily removable accessories. Public Safety recommends identifying items using your driver’s license number. Engravers may be borrowed from Public Safety.
    Engravers may be borrowed from Public Safety.
  • Remove navigation systems and cellular phones when your vehicle is parked.
  • Report any suspicious activity to Public Safety, including people looking in car windows.
  • If your car is stolen, notify Public Safety immediately.

Bicycles

  • Register your bicycle with Public Safety. Bicycles that are not registered will be removed from campus and disposed of.
  • Unregistered bicycles are removed by the College periodically through the semester. Be sure to register your bicycle as soon as you arrive on campus.
  • Keep a record of the bicycle’s description, serial number, and registration number.
  • Engrave your driver’s license number and state on the bicycle.
  • Lock your bike with a heavy chain through both wheels or with a hardened steel U-lock. About 50 percent of all bicycles stolen from campus are not locked. Bicycles are often “borrowed” without the permission of the owner; locking your bicycle will increase the likelihood that you will not lose your bicycle.
  • Bring your bicycle indoors at night.
  • If your bicycle is stolen, notify Public Safety immediately.

In an emergency

  • Rehearse in your mind how you would react in an emergency so your response will be automatic if something should happen.
  • Consider enrolling in a self-defense class offered by the Department of Physical Education (in conjunction with the Department of Public Safety) or attending one of the lunchtime self-defense classes, which are free to faculty, staff, and students.

If You are Followed...

  • Remain calm.
  • Cross the street.
  • Change direction.
  • Walk in lighted areas.
  • Enter an open, lighted building.
  • Use a blue-light phone or dial 1-911 on campus, 911 when off campus. Cell phone users should dial 413-538-2304.
  • Go to the Public Safety office or the police station. If you do not know where a police station is located, go to a busy area, fire station, or hospital. Find a place where you can get help.
  • Above all, do not go home (giving away your address).

If You are Attacked...

  • Don’t be passive; most attackers expect a passive victim.
  • Do or say whatever you can to throw the assailant off guard—be creative.
  • Attract attention—scream, break a window.
  • Disarm the attacker—bite, punch, kick.
  • Grind a pen, keys, lighted cigarette, or knuckles into the top of the attacker’s hand.
  • Do whatever you can to break the hold, then run and scream.
  • Use a blue-light phone or dial 1-911from a campus phone; dial 413-538-2304 from a cell phone if on campus.  Dial 911 if off campus.

If You Notice Someone Else is in Trouble...

  • Notify Public Safety.
  • Alert others and try to assist the victim as a group, provided it can be done safely.

For more about crime prevention...