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At night a thug can hide in a parking garage, an alley or the shadows of a construction site, waiting for a student who is walking alone, perhaps returning from a late-night class, perhaps a bit inebriated, or perhaps preoccupied with a cell-phone conversation.

But with the recent assaults against women - a rape, a carjacking, two burglaries and an attempted armed robbery - campus police are increasing patrols and asking students to take extra precautions for their safety.

Pruden, a sophomore, and her two roommates live in an apartment on Hardy Avenue, not far from where a student was raped Oct. 7 after leaving a party on Fraternity Row near the urban campus.

Pruden and her roommates have made numerous adjustments to their daily routines. They're avoiding late-night trips to the gym. They're beefing up the security on their windows.

Pruden, whose Monday night political science class lets out at 9:40, now plans to use a campus escort service to return from the class to her apartment.

Still, authorities say they've noticed some disturbing trends in the past 18 months, most conspicuously the number of gang-related problems near campus.

Gang members are gravitating toward SDSU "to meet girls and drink," campus police Captain Eddie Gilbert said, "the same reason everyone comes here at night."

"The drinking today is so different than it was 20 years ago," said Gilbert, whose daughter is a SDSU freshman. "It's not a question of getting buzzed. It's a question of how fast can (someone) get drunk. We're not talking about a couple beers. We're talking about eight, 12 shots in an hour."

Given that reality, police are encouraging students to make use of the police-run escort service on campus, promising that the escorts won't bust those students for under-age drinking.

Yesterday, with a noticeable increase in the number of police cars cruising the campus, the university announced plans to add more staff to the escort program and to increase the number of round-the-clock patrols.

Administrators are planning to send e-mails to parents to let them know what's been happening. Jason Foster, a SDSU spokesman, said "a handful but not a lot" of parents have expressed concerns in recent days.

On campus yesterday, several students expressed concern, but several others said they weren't any more worried than usual. Staying safe, they said, is a matter of common sense.

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