<p>Along with crime rate and Marta safety thread, any comments about how safe the dorms are in relationship to coming back at night from say the library or other campus locations.</p>
<p>Also, any issues (safety/crime) within the dorms themselves? There seems to be some problems with theft, but its hard to tell how much or too little. </p>
<p>Any insight will also be appreciated.</p>
<p>From my experience, the dorms are quite safe. I have heard of theft incidents occurring, but nothing too major - and if you lock your door every time you leave your room you can easily avoid that. As long as you use common sense, you will be safe. Lock your door, alert someone if you see someone sketchy in the hall, etc.</p>
<p>As for walking back from the library at night, I have never had an issue… the scariest thing I have encountered was a really big squirrel. But it is still in your best interest to not walk alone, just in case.</p>
<p>Basically I have never felt particularly unsafe while on campus. There are always people around.</p>
<p>Cute response about the squirrel.</p>
<p>The most dangerous thing about walking back from the library is avoiding a line drive if Sigma Chi is playing baseball on their lawn. </p>
<p>There are some reports of petty theft (laptops, iPods, etc) but that’s usually because someone left their laptop sitting in a public area and walked away. As maea said, as long as you lock your door, no one will break in to steal your things.</p>
<p>For years, though, the biggest problem on campus has been bike theft. Bums love to steal bikes parked on the edge of campus. If your son is bringing a bike (and he probably wants a cheap bike, not a nice one), make sure he has a good lock, registers it with the GTPD, and always remembers to secure it.</p>
<p>I appreciate the feedback. Interesting comments about locking doors, bikes and avoiding line drives.</p>
<p>On a side note, there is mention of leaving your door open to allow for visits by other students and getting to know others on campus. On the other end, locking the door also seems to be important. Guess you leave it open when in the room, locked when out.</p>
<p>Any suggestions on highly recommended dorm stuff? Of course there is a list of items to bring by GT, but does anyone have any suggestions on additional items that you wished you had brought to school that make like easier? For example, I read somewhere that have an air purifier helps with the room environment, but I don’t know if this is really necessary.</p>
<p>You can leave your dorm door open if you are in your dorm, but no one can come and meet you if you are not their, so why not keeping the door locked when you are out doesn’t help anyone meet you, but it does open up an opportunity for someone to take something. If you are not in your dorm keep the door locked; if you are in and want to meet people by all means keep the door open.</p>
<p>Dorm environment will vary depending on the cleanliness habits of those living in your room. If you are worried, bringing an air purifier will not hurt, but keep in mind that space is limited, air purifiers make noise(check with your room mate), and that some(ionic breeze) can cause issues for some people with asthma or other respiratory issues.</p>
<p>Dorms are very safe.</p>
<p>As for walking back from the library, a student was robbed at gunpoint right outside of the Smith building (right next to the library) right before Dead Week…crime has def increased lately…but so has the GTPD’s foot patrols in the area.</p>
<p>Crime will always be an issue in an urban setting, especially given the type of neighborhoods that surround GT and Georgia State. There has been an increase in violence around campus particularly in the last month, but GT has 71 dedicated campus Police to help keep the campus as safe as possible. However, they cannot be everywhere at once. There are emergency buttons located periodically around campus and if you act smartly, and avoid sketchy areas at night you should be fine. </p>
<p>GT will be holding a safety seminar for freshman, so that should give more specific advice on how to stay safe.</p>
<p>I thought that was the area between Skiles and Coon at like 2 am? That’s the first time I’ve heard of an armed robbery on campus since the Olympics. </p>
<p>I don’t think locking your door is a huge deal in a dorm. Usually, the people on a hallway make friends and people look out for each other. Someone would stop a random person from walking in your room. Of course, as easy as it is to steal a laptop, it’s not a bad idea to keep things locked just in case (and to bring a laptop cable/lock).</p>
<p>Edit: I was right on the location but wrong on the time: <a href=“http://www.police.gatech.edu/alerts/robbery033009.htm[/url]”>http://www.police.gatech.edu/alerts/robbery033009.htm</a></p>
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[quote]
On 03/30/2009 at approximately 11:26 Pm, two Georgia Tech students were robbed at gunpoint in the Mechanical Engineering Alleyway, near the Skiles Classroom Building Walkway and Crossland Library. According to the victims, the offender approached them from behind and produced a silver semi-automatic handgun, demanding their wallets and book bags. The victims complied with the offender</p>
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<p>It’s also a good idea to program GTPD’s phone number into his phone: 404.894.2500. If there’s an emergency, obviously 911 is the correct number to call, but if something looks suspicious or he needs to non-emergency help, that number will usually get a GTPD officer to his location in under a minute, in my experience.</p>