According to the University Web site, the Department of Public Safety “provides numerous services to more than 13,000 community members, of whom approximately 4,000 reside on campus.” In addition, the site refers to the location of the department (on the corner of Hempstead Tpke. and California Ave.) and says, “it is here that around-the-clock protection of the Hofstra campus is headquartered.”

So, if we are provided “around-the-clock protection” why is it that no one heard about Salvin Maldonardo, 29, who was “found covered in blood in Nassau-Suffolk residence hall on March 28, when he reported that he had been stabbed in a bar off-campus in Hempstead” until it was printed by The Chronicle in the Public Safety Briefs?

Since when is a stabbing not important enough to be made known to students via, say, the CANN system? Even though this person was not a University student, he was still found in a University residence hall and was most likely stabbed at a bar that University students frequent.

And why did no one notice a bloody man walking all the way from a bar to Nassau-Suffolk of all residence halls? Aren’t Public Safety officers supposed to be patrolling at all times so as to provide “around-the-clock-protection” to students? Other than Colonial Square, Nassau-Suffolk is probably one of the furthest residence halls from anywhere on Hempstead Turnpike.

If Public Safety is supposed to provide numerous services, informing students of stab victims that are found on campus should be one of them. Another one should be consistently ticketing vehicles that are not parked in real parking spots. For example, the many cars that are always parked along Liberty Blvd. in front of Hofstra USA. Yes, college kids can be considered lazy, but seriously, does it hurt to park a few feet away and use one’s legs to walk a little bit? Why would it ever be necessary to drive from the parking lot near Estabrook Hall to Dutch Treats? It’s really not that far and exercise never hurts.

Also, these vehicles take up the road so that only one other vehicle at a time can go in any one direction. When cars are parked three “spaces” away from the end of the last yellow line in a row of parking spaces it’s not just wrong parking, it’s parking in the middle of the road so that neither pedestrians nor other vehicles can get by.

We might as well start playing bumper cars, since that might be the only way to get illegally parked cars to move. But of course, a better solution: if public safety officers actually stopped to ticket these vehicles every single time, not just this week or next week. Maybe then people will actually learn.