College of Communication junior Caymee Wood said that although there is not campus security or an escort service for her study abroad program, she feels safe, if not safer, in Madrid than at Boston University.
“I rarely see any dark streets [here],” she said in an email. “There just seems to be more street lighting, and because of the culture here, there are always people awake and chatting and drinking in the streets until the early hours of the morning.”
Wood, who is in the Madrid Internship Program, is one of a number of students who said the safety and security within their abroad programs reflect the limited crime incidences reported in the BU Annual Security and Fire Safety Report of 2012–13.
The BU Police Department distributed the report to students in an email last Friday, which contained crime statistics for the Charles River Campus on- and off-campus residences as well as BU study abroad programs.
Madrid, as well as the majority of other study abroad cities, reported no crimes between 2009 and 2011.
“I usually see a good amount of people and feel comfortable walking knowing there’s safety in numbers,” Wood said about Madrid. “In Boston, it doesn’t seem this way. Even parts of Comm. Ave. can get pretty dark and quiet come 11 at night.”
The program in Los Angeles was the only one to report a crime, one burglary in 2011, according to the report.
Even though the number of crimes at abroad campuses is significantly fewer than those on Boston campuses, BUPD Sergeant Daniel Healy said the crime statistics reported are accurate.
“For each of the locations outside of Boston, the university typically controls property only in a building or two,” he said. “Fortunately, it has been relatively rare for crimes to occur in those facilities outside of Boston.”
Healy said the deaths of three students in a vehicular accident in New Zealand on May 12 will not be included in the next annual security report because it only reports Jeanne Clery Act crimes, which does not classify a traffic fatality as a non-negligent homicide.
Olivia Soga, a College of Arts and Sciences junior in the London Internship Program, said there are different restrictions for overnight guests and duration of their stays as well as keypads for the communal kitchens.
“I live in a very tame building, so we haven’t had any noise violations abroad so far,” she said. “My floormates are all very close, so we’ve never had problems with stolen things or loud neighbors.”
College of Fine Arts junior Jackson Miller said security is more “lax” on the London campus, where only one of the three residences has a guard and the resident assistants do not punish as frequently.
“They aren’t guarding the building like the guards in Boston,” he said in an email interview. “The RAs have a much more informational role here than a disciplinary one, so I’m much more likely to ask my RA for a suggestion of where to go or what to do than getting rebuked for doing something.”
CAS junior Zachary Mueller, an RA in London this semester, said it is more relaxed in London where quiet hours are from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. and has only had to talk to students twice so far to keep noise levels down.
“With more relaxed regulations, the student life staff expects more out of the students, and I’ve been impressed with how well students respond to that respect,” he said. “We don’t write people up for drinking here because it’s legal, and students have responded great to that as well.”
Mueller said that because the BU housing in London is in a safe area, it limits the number of robberies. Back in Boston, he said criminals take advantage of the fact that there are more than 16,000 students in a concentrated area.
“Armed robberies with guns don’t happen very often here at all because of strict European gun laws, unlike what happened at BU the other day,” he said referring to the Sept. 22 and Sept. 25 Brookline robbery of three students.
Wood said although some of her friends have been victims of pickpocketing, the safety abroad is higher than that on campus.
“The people themselves just don’t seem as threatening,” she said. “They are much more open and friendly. Maybe it’s a cultural thing.”