College campus safety tips help ease parents', students' transition

When young adults go off to college, often it's their first time to be on their own. Some test their new responsibility by pushing their freedom in ways that can potentially be dangerous.

Most first-year college students already know their parents' values and are responsible and mature enough to continue living these values when away from parents' watchful eyes, said Owen Yardley, chief of police at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

But it's never too late for parents to outline expectations and give advice that will, if followed, help their students stay safe at college, Yardley said.

"Our advice to parents at this time in their child's life, and in this day and age, is to be aware of specific risks involving MySpace and other social networking sites (like Facebook), alcohol and prescription drugs," Yardley said. Many of the drugs teens are experimenting with and abusing are obtained from others' prescriptions. Many alcohol products are packaged and marketed to appeal to young adults (like "energy drinks"), and there are trends among some young adults to drink to extreme. In addition many youngsters have been socialized to reveal a lot -- too much -- of their personal lives and private information on social networking sites, he said.

Parents need to be aware and caution their students about these risks.

Yardley and officers at UNL give presentations to students and other groups about campus safety. Their advice focuses on using common sense and being aware of risks. Always locking car and residence hall doors and always "buddying up" at parties and events to watch out for one other are their key pieces of advice. Never leaving one's belongings, particularly electronics and identification, lying unattended is important to remember.

"We need students to be aware of identity theft and the realization that if someone steals their credit card, they're going to use it within the next 30 minutes. These losses need to be reported immediately."

Yardley and the department are stepping up efforts to be more proactive about reporting threatening behavior by raising awareness about threatening behaviors like stalking, making electronic threats, or people making suicidal or terroristic threats.

"These threatening behaviors need to be called to our attention when they occur," he said. "There are often various interventions that offer help and may prevent a situation from escalating."

Tips on how to stay safe at college:

* Never reveal personal details about yourself on your social networking site that could enable someone to track you down or make unwanted advances.

* Buddy up: Whenever possible, go with someone you know. Make sure someone knows where you are going if you must go alone.

* Never leave a drink unattended at a gathering. Never drink something that you don't know where it came from.

* Don't leave your valuables unattended, even for one second: Your laptop, iPod, cellular phone, books can be swiped in a moment. Don't leave your residence hall room unlocked even when "stepping out for a second."

* Record the identifying features and serial numbers of your valuables. University Police has an online registration form to help keep track of this information. Take photos of your valuables, if possible, and keep major purchase receipts.

* Sign up for campus emergency alert systems that use technology like text-messaging, cellular phones and e-mails to warn or alert in emergencies. UNL has one: UNL Alert (http://unlalert.unl.edu).

* It's OK to leave your cellular phone on in class for emergencies: Turn it to vibrate.

* Guard your personal information like Social Security number and account numbers. Shred bills or documents that have these on them. Using electronic bill-pay systems may be safer and more convenient than paper.

* If you are contacted by police for a violation, don't attempt to avoid them, this will only make matters worse and may put yourself in danger. If you make a mistake, be responsible by reporting what happened.

For more information, visit http://emergency.unl.edu or http://police.unl.edu.