LSA senior Stephanie Tillman asked police at a campus safety forum last night whether she could carry mace on campus for self-defense

Department of Public Safety Director Bill Bess said she could, but recommended what he said was a more practical solution for keeping safe at night: the buddy system.

Tillman, who lives on Mary Street, near where a student reported being raped on Feb. 28, said she came to the forum because she is concerned about her safety.

Michigan Student Assembly and the Office of the Dean of Students sponsored the forum, which also featured Ann Arbor Deputy Police Chief Greg O'Dell, Dean of Students Sue Eklund and DPS spokeswoman Diane Brown.

The meeting's purpose was "to have a check-in for how things feel on campus," Eklund said. Only ten students attended the event last night in the MSA chambers in the Michigan Union

Bess said the most common criminal activity on campus is larceny.

Brown said that these larcenies are often just crimes of opportunity.

She said people leave laptops and cell phones in a public area unattended and that "all it takes is five minutes" for someone to pick up a device and walk away with it.

Bess said that personal crimes - those that involve interaction between the suspect and the victim - are relatively low on campus.

O'Dell said the main concern with off-campus crimes is home invasions like the one LSA junior Sabrina Shingwani experienced shortly before Spring Break.

Shingwani was sitting in her room studying in her house on Elm Street when someone walked into her house and stole a backpack from her living room. There was a laptop inside the backpack. The thief then walked upstairs and took an iPod, camera and another laptop from the room right next door to the one Shingwani was sitting in.

Shingwani said she and her roommates narrowed down the time of the break in to within an hour - the time between when one of her roommates left and another returned.

Shingwani said that before the break-in, she, her nine roommates and their friends often came in and out of her house throughout the day.

Now Shingwani said she and her nine roommates now take extra precautions in securing their home, even when they're in it.

"Our door is never unlocked," she said.

O'Dell said the AAPD began sending e-mails to the student body as reminders before breaks to remind them to secure their homes.

Keeping students informed is always a struggle, Brown said.

In light of the reported rape and the break-in at her house, Shingwani said she is concerned about walking home late at night.

"When I'm alone I don't feel safe anymore," she said. "I get paranoid."

Shingwani raised her concern regarding lighting for students who live off-campus. She said that although she thinks Elm Street is well-lit, the area she will be moving to next year near Packard Street and Greenwood Avenue next year is poorly lit.

O'Dell said that the "existing lighting meets standards," and that the city doesn't have any additional money to spend on lighting.

"Lighting off campus will never be as good as on campus," he said.