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"I don't feel safe in my apartment."

As tears trickled down her cheeks, N.C. A&T junior Amber Iciano recounted the scary night last month when a stranger confronted her and her boyfriend, Tyler Becknell, and forced his way into Becknell's apartment.

"The guy came out of nowhere," said Becknell, a junior architectural engineering major from Tulsa, Okla.

The man was breathing heavily and one of his pants legs was caked with mud. He said he was running from police.

The couple asked that he leave them alone -- that they didn't want to be connected with a fugitive from the law.

The man didn't care. "Wherever you go," he said, "I'm going."

Afraid to go out

Becknell said he couldn't tell whether the man was armed but decided it was best not to find out. The man remained for a while in the apartment before, finally, mercifully, leaving. Police eventually arrested him. But the memory of that night lingers. "As much as I like A&T," Becknell said, "I'm ready to graduate and leave."

Becknell and Iciano were among about 60 students, faculty and community members who attended a forum last week on student safety hosted by A&T Chancellor Stanley Battle and City Councilwoman Goldie Wells.

The incident and the lasting fear it instilled underscore an aspect of this issue that should not be lost: Students living on and off campus need to feel comfortable going to the library and academic buildings, during the day and after dark.

Becknell and Iciano don't feel comfortable.

"How am I supposed to finish my education when I'm afraid to leave my apartment at night?" said Iciano, a mechanical engineering major from Deptford, N.J.

Candor and substance

Even though two A&T students have been murdered in successive years and others have been shot or assaulted in recent months, the forum was lightly attended. A forum two years ago on youth gangs drew a standing-room-only crowd.

But those who did come were engaged and should have left encouraged.

They heard from campus police, Greensboro police and representatives of apartment complexes in the city that cater to college students. An A&T senior, Dennis Hayle, was fatally shot at one of those complexes, Campus Courtyard, near the A&T campus on Jan. 25.

They also heard a laundry list of hopeful initiatives either already begun or planned that ought to be helpful:

* Planned upgrades to campus lighting.

* Campus Courtyard's installation of surveillance cameras.

* The hiring of more off-duty Greensboro police officers by some apartment complexes.

* A&T's creation of a guide, patterned after a similar one at East Carolina University, that provides to students a list of available apartments and the safety amenities they offer (for example, who provides security patrols and who doesn't).

* Increased Greensboro Police Department patrols near campus areas, especially foot patrols (a proven approach that increases visibility and builds relationships).

* A series of safety meetings at apartment complexes with large numbers of student tenants. The next one is scheduled for Tuesday at Campus Courtyard.

* A student's suggestion that text messaging be used for safety alerts (great idea; to most students, cell phones are as essential an accessory as shoes or car keys).

Police as tenants?

Greensboro police also are pursuing a "courtesy officer" program that would seek officers who would elect to live in apartment complexes for reduced or free rent in exchange for helping with security.

Of course, such an approach would be doubly effective if Greensboro police were allowed to bring their patrol cars home. A patrol car parked in any community for several hours on a regular basis would be worth its weight in peace of mind.

Another especially promising idea that emerged Monday night: Establishing "Apartment Watch" programs that are similar in theme to Community Watches. Neighbors would organize to look after one another and to report suspicious activity to police, ideally, before crimes can be committed.

Such an approach tends to be most effective in stable communities with longer-term residents. Student tenants typically are much more transient.

But any approach that uses building community to build safety is worth trying, for college students and for the rest of us, too.