Keycards for my college kids, with one tiny key for the mailbox!
Information/education on safe practices. This includes locking your door, paths taken and all sorts of things. I’m sure we could all hijack this thread with “stupid” things we did as students. Walking home alone in the wee hours in the middle of winter (looking like a guy in my parka and sticking to the main drag- carless at that time of night- I considered what I could do as two figures were approaching me- they got close enough to recognize as two friends (the guy was walking the woman home from my part of campus and I was leaving a girlfriend at that dorm).
Smart people will take chances. I like the thought of a push button alarm- but that would have never been heard at that time of night passing academic buildings. I know they cut down the underbrush along one of the paths on campus after my time. Plus those call boxes were added. Keeping doors locked even in the middle of the day is important.
There is a little device that when you pull it apart sounds a siren. It is designed to be on the outside of a backpack or on a key chain or I think pinned to clothing (for it you are running or without a backpack or keys or phone). It does you no good if you can’t reach it easily, just like a phone does you no good if you can’t dial or left it at home or have it strapped to your arm.
Nothing replaces good sense, but add the traveling in groups and cell phones and alarms and it increases the safety. I do not think mace does because by that time you are very close to your attacker…And it is illegal in a lot of places.
If your daughter is being mugged, the smartest decision is to do exactly as the robber says. Her laptop and smartphone aren’t worth escalating a situation, making it more likely to end in physical violence. A siren couldn’t hurt, but if it’s anything like car theft alarms, we’ve been conditioned by false alarms to universally ignore them.