By Kat Meyer

Comm. News Assoc. Editor

For many Calvin students living off-campus, safety concerns come after concerns about affordable rent and large, comfortable rooms.

But some Calvin students are finding safety an issue that now demands their attention. In the last month, two different Calvin houses have had repeated problems with break-ins.

A house of six Calvin students located near Division St and Garfield Park had three incidents over Labor Day weekend alone, ranging from a man wandering around the property to two potentially serious breaking and entering situations that demanded police intervention.

Another house of Calvin students also had three incidents of breaking and entering in the first month of residency, resulting in $500 in property loss.

Although Grand Rapids is considered safe for a city its size, its overall crime rate of 4.3% exceeds the national average. According to the 1997 FBI Uniform Crime Reports, 6% of Grand Rapids residents experience property crimes (including burglary and auto theft) each year, as compared to 4.4% nationwide.

Grand Rapids' rates for murder and rape are also above the national average.

In a more recent survey, however, the governor's office reported last week that serious crime in Michigan dropped 4% from 1999 to 2000.

Bob Crow, Dean of Student Development, said that he was unaware of the problems that off-campus students have been having recently, but urged students to be aware.

``Use common sense,'' he said. ``Lock doors and keep lights on during the night to prevent burglars from being so bold.''

Unfortunately, ordinary prevention measures have not always been successful.

When Calvin Junior Arevig Setian and one of her housemates returned home from a party around midnight on Sept. 3, they heard a noise in the upstairs of their two-flat, located between Division and Garfield Park.

When Setian went upstairs, she saw a man's silhouette in the darkness.

``I didn't know what to do, so I ran downstairs and we called my other roommate,'' Setian said. ``I don't know why we didn't just call the police; I guess I'm not used to situations like that.''

They immediately called the police the following night, Sept. 4th, after one of Setian's roommates saw something moving outside her window at approximately 2 A.M. while she was changing. She quickly turned off the lights and peered out to see a person on a ladder trying to get in the window.

The police arrived ten minutes after Setian and her roommates called, but the suspicious person had already fled the scene. Their landlord, who lives around the corner, had also been contacted.

Junior Becky Warp, who lives with Setian, said, ``Our landlord is really concerned, and wants us to feel safe.

``He and his wife let us keep their rottweiler at our house and he put in motion sensor lights outside, and more window and door locks, and- also installed a new security system,'' she said.

``We feel a lot safer now, but it's still scary,'' she said. ``Why did the person try to get in the house when we were obviously all home? It makes you think that they might not have just wanted to steal something.''

According to Setian and Warp, police found the ladder, which had been stolen from a neighbor's house, in a clump of bushes near their house. They checked it for fingerprints, but residents have yet to hear anything back.

Police informed them of other reports of a ``peeping tom'' in the area, said Setian. Officers also told the girls to be cautious, keep in touch with each other and never hesitate to call the police

Grand Rapids Police were unavailable for comment because of their move to a new location last Monday.

Not all students receive that same personal attention and support from landlords and police, however.

Former Calvin student Steve Tigchelaar, who still lives with three Calvin students on Carlton St. in Eastown, feels like he is on his own.

Despite a theft and two instances of breaking and entering in the last month, his landlord has taken no extra security measures to protect them, he said.

The first incident was in early September, when Tigchelaar saw three teenage boys snooping around on the porch in front of the house. ``I opened the front door to see what was going on, and they took off,'' he said.

The next week, one of Tigchelaar's roommates got out of the bathroom after taking a shower to find a man who claimed to be selling compact discs suspiciously wandering around in their living room, Tigchelaar said.

According to Tigchelaar, he and his roommates had been locking up the house and their porch since the second incident, but someone broke into the porch in the middle of the night last week, and cut through his bike lock, and stole his bicycle, which was worth $500.

Tigchelaar filed a police report about the theft, but recovery rates are low and the GRPD couldn't offer him any assurances that the bicycle would be recovered, said Tigchelaar, who is hoping the bike will be covered by his insurance.

Because Calvin's campus is small and serious crime occurs infrequently, most students feel relatively safe, confident that Campus Safety and Calvin's Residence Life staff would give them personal attention if they were threatened.

When students move off campus, they must leave that security behind and become as vulnerable as any other citizen, said Crow.

``Crime is just part of reality; it's part of living in a broken world and college students can be easy prey,'' he said. ``Don't be naive, but take the necessary precautions.''

Tigchelaar will admit he's gotten more than he bargained for.

``We moved into this neighborhood because we thought it would be safer,'' he said. Since all the ordinary precautions have been taken, all he can do is watch out and hope it won't happen again, he said.

And despite reassurance from police and extra security from her landlord, Setian also feels vulnerable and worries about coming home alone.

``I'm just a lot more aware of what's going on around us,'' she said.