A string of six robberies and attempted robberies over the course of five days has led the St. Louis Metropolitan, University City and Washington University police departments to increase off-campus patrols.

A resident of the Thomas Eliot House reported the burglary of a laptop from an unlocked dorm room on Friday. The computer went missing between the hours of 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. This is the second such burglary to happen this month. On April 13, a resident of Millbrook reported the theft of his computer and notebook while his apartment was empty. The door to the apartment had been left unlocked according to WUPD.

A mishap with a reaction experiment in an environmental nanochemistry laboratory of Brauer Hall brought at least nine fire trucks to the northeast of campus Tuesday afternoon. No one was injured and, according to fire department officials at the scene, damage was negligible.

I have heard this story about 1,000 times: WUPD stops black student at Washington University. Every time I chat with friends about this issue, I cannot help but laugh because I feel that it is obvious as to who is a student here and who is not.

Washington University police arrested two men in connection with a case of burglary in the Seigle Hall computer lab last week. The police department found a computer that matched the description of the missing ones on Craigslist. WUPD started communications with the sellers, pretending that they were interested in purchasing the computer.

Thursday evening two robberies occurred near-campus; however, the University body was not made aware of these incidents until an e-mail announcement was sent out on Friday morning. At 8:30 pm Thursday evening, a graduate student’s fiancée was accosted by three suspects outside of her apartment in the 6300 block of Cabanne, located in University City.

Last week’s robbery and the related University-wide e-mails have heightened student awareness of safety on and off campus. While some students say they continue to feel as safe as ever, others say they are more fearful.

Many university emergency management officials across the country continuously are asked questions from their university community about why they did or why they did not issue an emergency alert due to some incident on or off-campus.

Every semester, my backpack surprises my classmates. No, it’s not high-tech, excessively large or hot pink. I have a mesh backpack, and apparently very few students at Wash. U. are accustomed to seeing one. Of course, having had a mesh backpack for most of my life, I think it’s pretty weird for me to see so many students carrying opaque bags.

Off-campus safety has been at the forefront of students’ minds this year. With a jump in crime last spring and the recent violent attack on a graduate student, students have appropriately questioned the safety surrounding their off-campus living quarters.