A look around campus reveals a continuing cycle of classes and schoolwork, without a sense of fear or confusion that many students felt after returning to campus more than a month ago.

Although most students weren’t involved in the Feb. 14 shootings firsthand, they still might feel jarred and fearful, even today. Some students may need more of a sense of security while on campus, which could mean more therapy groups, more friends around them or more uniformed police making their rounds throughout the campus. More police on campus may sound familiar, but some students think security hasn’t heightened at all since the shooting.

“The dorms have become stricter with getting inside,” said Kyle Daley, a junior corporate communication major. “But people are feeling safe, so I think everything else has stayed the same.”

If NIU added more police than it already has to campus, it would not feel safer to a certain extent. What safety means to everybody is different, but it’s not simply more uniformed people walking around campus. Security means being comforted and feeling hopeful by the people around you. If we added more security, some students might feel constricted in their movements or feel oppressed.

Post graduate Victoria Therriault hasn’t seen a difference in security since the first week back, saying that security could have increased, but it’s not that apparent to her.

“It has just felt like coming back for another day of classes,” Therriault said.

NIU might not feel the same as it did before the shootings, but students have been coming together and trudging on so that the usual sense of security from police isn’t as necessary anymore. NIU has realized that although our campus has been forever changed, it has not been broken.

I’m not trying to put down the University Police at all, because they have done an amazing job with regard to helping students, but what students need most right now is to move on and start thinking of the future, not be constantly reminded of what happened in February every time they see an officer. I think it’s evident that our school is strong, secure and hopeful for the future and hasn’t really developed a necessity for added security.

One fact that remains is that another shooting hasn’t taken place at the same location. Either from boosted security or the chance to get help, students haven’t returned to the same habits that resulted in another shooting at the same school.

“I think the students are taking security with there being no second shooting,” said Therriault, who thinks students are more comforted by that fact than anything else. “I don’t see the point in being fearful of one person.”

The University Police refused to comment for this story.