I'm a regular who has name changed for this.
I started college in September to do a HE access course. The college has bought a new building for this year which is about a 15 minute walk away from the main campus and it's where us mature students have to go to for all our lessons. This wouldn't be a problem except the building is in quite a rough area. There have been numerous muggings and attacks reported in the area just outside and near the college. There are also drunks and druggies who sit just outside the college and intimidate a lot of people.
Those things on their own are an annoyance in themselves but it still wouldn't be too bad as they're outside the college...except the security in this new building is utter shit! They have only one security guard who mostly sits there looking bored most of the time and although they have a member of staff by the entrance who is supposed to check student ID before you enter, they seldom ever do check and usually just let anyone walk straight in! As a result, some of the drunks and druggies who loiter outside have been known to just come in and loiter around the corridors outside the classrooms. As you can imagine this does make people feel uneasy. Like I said, it's in a well known rough area already yet they just let anyone walk in. God knows who else could just wonder in.
There was an incident about a month ago where I was leaving the building and there was a man who was swearing his head off at everyone who walked past, he was very aggressive and intimidating people who walked past. The security guard was standing there of course, not really doing anything to get him off the premises, he was just looking bored as usual 
The thing is though, the main campus isn't exactly in a nice area but it is a lot safer than where we are. There are also numerous security guards down there so I don't understand why they couldn't have put us in a building on the main campus. There's not exactly a shortage of them. Some people on my course have decided to put in official complaints about it as it's not fair that we don't feel safe coming to college. Tbh I feel really unsafe where we are now and am seriously considering dropping out and going to a different college next year instead. I keep telling myself it's only for a year but I really don't feel safe especially now the dark nights are here. I'm going to put in a complaint too but not sure how much difference it will actually make.
I should also add that there used to be a children's support service next door (I think that's what it was) but it closed down because the area was deemed to be too unsafe. So they put us here with barely any security instead .
There are also little things that are irritating about this building such as the heating doesn't always work properly so it's often freezing cold and as it's a new purchase by the college there is still a bit of building work going on. Those are minor things compared to the safety issue though.
Would you stick around in this sort of situation? I was looking forward to college this year and going to university next year but now I just feel completely uneasy and just not safe so not sure if it's worth sticking it out.
This turned out quite long and I realise that my description would make it obvious which college I'm talking about if you're a student there but whatever.
Is it too much to ask to want to feel safe in a learning environment?
AIBU?
To want to quit my college course because I feel unsafe?
TiredAndAnnoyed · 18/11/2013 21:27
One is a bad reputation, so if something happened and it was in the papers, they would be more worried about that than they would be about the person who was attacked.
well that's just crap.
Don’t want to miss threads like this?
Weekly
Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!
Log in to update your newsletter preferences.
You've subscribed!
I forgot to mention that I didn't actually know the area well before I started and when I told my dad where the new building was he was shocked and thought I was joking. He then said he would have to give me pepper spray and some self defence lessons if I had to go there. I didn't think he was entirely serious and thought it couldn't be that bad, but now I see what he means.
We have a students union but am not sure how I go about contacting them. Nobody's ever told us anything 
That's another thing we have a problem with - a lot of people feel like they've been cut off from the rest of the college. We've barely been told anything.
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.