It is not unusual for members of student organizations, particularly media organizations, to work late into the night in the Commons Annex, scrambling to finish deadlines while simultaneously (and miraculously) finishing homework.

In years past, this was done with little notice from Campus Safety, whose dispatch office is in the same building. Students working dispatch understand that their fellow students keep strange hours to match their varied, unorthodox schedules, but some of the full-time employees seem to misunderstand the college lifestyle.

Recently, students have been inconvenienced by locked doors long before buildings close. Worse than the annoyance of having to call dispatch for entrance into the Annex, however, is the danger of having to walk from the library back to dorms outside of the buildings between Hekman and the dorms. Buildings like the Commons Annex and Johnny's are supposed to be open - why else would the Fish House be open until 1 a.m.? When they are locked, students are forced to walk around the outside of the buildings, and when students, especially female students, are counting on the buildings being unlocked, this is more than a small problem, it can be downright frightening.

The solution here is simple. Remind maintenance and Campus Safety workers that buildings should not be locked before midnight.

During these instances, Campus Safety officers insist that they are only trying to do their job and trying to protect the student workers in the dispatch room. Perhaps this is true, but the people to suspect are not the ones who are working in the building late at night to produce the school newspaper, television station, literary magazine, yearbook or discussing student government.

If there is one Campus Safety-related institution of which most students do approve, it is the escort service offered at night. It is wonderful that Calvin provides escorts for students from dorms, classrooms, apartments and cars. Students who do not take advantage of this should. For those dorm-dwelling students who park across the Beltline, the escort service is particularly helpful, and not only because the woods of the nature preserve provide a hiding place for potential thieves and rapists.

But again, students should be warned, to request this service could mean being ignored for 20 or 30 minutes, depending on the hour. Young women sitting in their cars, alone, at any late hour feel insecure, particularly with the woods behind them and the Beltline in front of them. Who knows what is lurking out there and who knows how long it will take an escort driver to arrive.

More escort drivers are needed during the busy hours of 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. and escort drivers should be available after 2 a.m. Campus Safety patrol cars after 2 a.m. are required to not only patrol the multiple parking lots on campus, but also escort students when requested. This is a no-win situation. Students wait so long that they often give up and walk, defeating the purpose of calling the escort, and Campus Safety must sacrifice several trips around campus patrolling for illegal activities. Students end up endangered in more than one way.

Remind maintenance and Campus Safety workers that buildings should not be locked before midnight. This does not cost the college extra money.

A third, and final, complaint, is that some Campus Safety officers simply do not know the rules of the college. One resident assistant in Rooks-VanDellan was ticketed two to three times within a two-week period for parking in the short-term parking behind the dorm. Her crime? Evidently parking with an overnight parking pass, as issued to RAs across campus in case of emergencies. When she approached student workers at the Campus Safety office in the Annex to appeal the tickets, she was told that no one could park in the lot for longer than 30 minutes - not even those to whom special permits have been issued.

How can an organization that doesn't even know its own rules effectively guard the student body from serious threats? And how are students to trust officers who don't know those rules? These are serious questions that demand to be answered, particularly if that answer comes in the form of improved efficiency.

Sometimes, complaining about an undesirable situation does nothing more than fall on deaf ears. Sometimes, however, complaining about a situation is the only way to incite some sort of change. In this case, the former is feared while the latter remains the hope of students across campus.

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