The Georgetown University Student Association plans to restart the SafeWalks program this weekend, which will provide student escorts between the hours of 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. SafeWalks was begun in response to student concerns about safety last fall, but was inactive during the spring semester.
GUSA President Kaydee Bridges (SFS ‘03) cited a lack of volunteers as the main obstacle to the program.
Unlike SafeRides, the van service operated by the Department of Public Safety, SafeWalks is run completely by GUSA and was staffed entirely by volunteers last year.
This year, escorts can be paid if they are work-study students. The delay in the start of the program this semester was due to a brief hiring period at the start of the year, Bridges said.
Escorts will work in teams, patrolling campus locations to assist students who might be walking alone. Other volunteers will work in the GUSA office, calling the escorts via radio when students call in for the service.
New volunteer recruitment tactics have revitalized the program for this semester.
Patrick Durbin (NHS ‘04) and Beth Cooney (NHS ‘03), co-chairs of GUSA’s Health, Safety, and Justice Advocacy Committee, have appointed two students to coordinate recruitment and improve the efficiency of the program.
For the first few weekends, SafeWalks will operate only on-campus, Cooney said.
While SafeRides provides a van service to students who are off campus, SafeWalks is intended to help students who need to walk around Georgetown properties, Cooney said.
Cooney said that she hopes to be able to send escorts into the Georgetown and Burleith areas in the future.
GUSA representatives said that they feel that SafeWalks and other safety initiatives will go a long way towards helping students feel secure on campus.
“There is crime on campus. This is just another measure to increase safety,” Bridges said.
