Bilal Shalash turned in his Chemistry 107 final a few minutes before time was called at 10:30 p.m., Tuesday evening. One of his friends had left before he finished, so Shalash called him to talk about the exam during his walk from the Whitehall Classroom Building to his car, parked on Limestone across from the College of Law.

“I had the phone to my left ear, and somebody came up from behind me and smacked the phone out of my hand,” Shalash said. He thought it was one of his friends playing a joke on him. Shalash was between the engineering buildings and the Gatton Business and Economics Building.

“I turned around and (one of the robbers) had a gun pointed at me,” Shalash said. “He said, ‘Give me your money.’ I was like, ‘I’m a broke college student. I don’t have any money.’”

The robber said then he knew Shalash had money. Shalash gave him the $45 to $50 that was in his wallet. The second robber then told Shalash he liked his watch. Shalash said his dead grandfather gave him the watch, when the watch was actually from his mother. The robbers did not take it from Shalash.

“Then they took off running and I kept walking and by the time I got to Memorial (Hall), I couldn’t hear them anymore and that’s when I called the police.”

A UK alert was sent out at 10:50 p.m. warning students to avoid the area between Memorial Hall and the Gatton Building. An all-clear alert was sent out at 11:04 p.m.

Shalash, a Spanish and pre-medicine freshman, filed a report with UK Police.

“After I talked to the officer and kept going to my car, that’s when the rage hit me,” Shalash said.

Now, Shalash is trying to reach out to UK administration about either moving late final exams to an earlier time or having more police patrol the academic area during the exams. Shalash also said increasing street lights around campus could improve safety.

Shalash tweeted early Wednesday morning about the robbery and asked for students to join him in, “raising awareness and demanding that exams should not be held this late at night.” The tweet currently has 505 retweets and 607 likes. 

My thoughts on what happened tonight- May 3rd, 2016. pic.twitter.com/WpdWtjUTp9

— Bilal Shalash (@bsshalash) May 4, 2016

“It is an issue we must address as a community and I will lead the charge,” Shalash tweeted. “This is unacceptable and we can make a difference.”

In an email to the Kentucky Kernel, UK spokesperson Kathy Johnson confirmed that UK police currently do increase patrols during finals.

“We always review processes and procedures after finals week to examine what went well and where, if necessary, improvements need to be made,” UK spokesperson Jay Blanton wrote in an email to the Kernel. “We will be doing that this year as well, just as always.”

Shalash has received a lot support from fellow UK students, his family and his friends.

“I’ve gotten tweets back from everywhere, from EKU to UofL to guys in other fraternities,” Shalash said. “The support is there.”

Since Chi Psi, Shalash’s fraternity, has no nationally recognized philanthropy, Shalash said the UK chapter is considering adopting campus safety concerns as their philanthropy. One way they will start is by hosting a 5K Glow Run in the fall to increase awareness of campus safety concerns at night.

Another armed robbery was reported on UK’s campus on March 30. In the past year, at least five shootings have occurred in student neighborhoods or in student-occupied apartment buildings. Four of those shootings included fatalities. 

Editor’s note: An update was made to this article to include comments from Jay Blanton.