An effort by members of the Georgetown University Student Association to extend the hours of SafeRides may be put in effect this weekend. GUSA has proposed to extend SafeRides for an additional hour on a trial basis, asking for vans to run from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday nights and from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. Thursday through Saturday nights.
SafeRides currently operates two vans and offers rides to students until 2 a.m. on weekday nights and until 3 a.m. on weekends. Safe Rides is organized by the Department of Public Safety but is run by student drivers.
GUSA developed the proposal for longer hours due to requests from many students. Additionally, GUSA representatives cited the example of a Georgetown student who was robbed at 3:15 a.m. last week, 15 minutes after SafeRides stopped running.
“There’s a need not being met right now,” GUSA President Ryan DuBose (CAS ‘02) said. “Hopefully it’s something people will utilize because we have gotten so many e-mails.”
GUSA has already passed the plan to Vice President of Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez who was very responsive and helpful according to Macky Neal (CAS ‘02), chair of the GUSA Student Health, Safety, and Justice Committee
“I’m really going to try to see if we can make it work,” Gonzalez said. “The difficulty is in getting students to give up their weekend nights … Those hours are really difficult to staff.”
Gonzalez said he is working with William Tucker, the director of DPS, to look at all the options. “I don’t want to run to make the change just because students are saying we need to make it happen. When we create a solution, it will be thoughtful and will be a solution that will work,” Gonzalez said.
“Right now we are looking at the feasibility to determine if we can get the resources … I don’t know if we can get the drivers,” Tucker said. He said that there would be additional costs incurred but that the University could probably cover them.
After SafeRides hours, Tucker said students with legitimate safety concerns can call DPS and an officer will escort the student in a patrol car. Another service many students may not be aware of is the availability of an on-campus DPS escort 24 hours a day.
Last spring, a second van was added to the Safe Rides program; since then, demand has dramatically increased. GUSA reported that response times are down despite an average of 120 calls per weekend compared with only 80 before the addition of the second van.
Tucker said SafeRides responded to 167 calls last Saturday night and 65 to 70 calls this Tuesday night.
Many of the SafeRides drivers do not support extending the hours.
“I personally don’t think there’s a need [for additional hours] … I understand the bars close at 3, but if your safety really is a priority … [students] can get to the van earlier” said Jim Purcell (CAS ‘05), the only assistant to one of the drivers on Friday nights.
Purcell also said he thought an extended shift may be asking too much of student drivers who are already working seven-hour shifts.
GUSA is also reinstating the SafeWalks program, an escort service that started up after Sept. 11 in response to University concerns for student safety. The program is organized by the Student Health, Safety and Justice Committee and is operated by student volunteers.
According to DuBose, University President John J. DeGioia said in a meeting with GUSA and members of the administration that he thought that the SafeWalks program should continue. The program stopped running after several weekends due to a lack of volunteers but is being started again this weekend due to requests of the student body and administration.
GUSA presented the SafeWalks program before the Club Union to attract volunteer student groups. The hours for SafeWalks escorts are 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.
