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The student-run program is putting the buddy system into practice and offering "safe walks" for students, faculty and staff on campus after hours.

By University Communications
February 22, 2008

It was a well-known but unsettling statistic that led Carly Thomsen and others to introduce a new program meant to make sure fewer students are walking around The University of Arizona campus alone at night.

Thomsen, director of the UA student-run Women’s Resource Center, cited a late 1980s study that found one in four college age women nationally are either victims of sexual assault or know someone who has been.

“The unfortunate part is that since 1987, these statistics have been replicated multiple times,” said Thomsen, also a master’s degree student in the UA women’s studies program. “This is a way we can take back the night.”

During the fall, she and her colleagues at the Women’s Resource Center launched Safe Walk after receiving a $16,400 grant from the UA Parents & Family Association, which focuses on family-oriented issues and supports a number of campus organizations.

“The UA is especially dark at night, so we’re trying to increase the feeling of safety on campus,” said Briana Dorrenbacher, the center’s outreach and development intern and a UA senior studying psychology and women's studies. “We feel safe using the buddy system.”

The center views Safe Walk as a proactive initiative.

Kristen Barnes, a Safe Walk volunteer who also coordinates the center’s self-defense program, said people will sometimes take self-defense classes after being victimized. But Safe Walk is focusing on a different approach, she said.

“Safe Walk is teaching prevention and learning how to protect yourself: walking on well lit streets, parking under lights, telling people where you are going. These things can prevent a potential attack,” Barnes added, saying that the escorts sometimes talk about safety issues on their walks.

“You can always learn self-defense, but prevention is key here," she said.

Safe Walk, which runs from 7:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, allows students, faculty and staff to call the office for an escorted walk anywhere within the University’s designated boundaries. It generally takes 15 minutes for the pair of escorts to arrive.

The center says Safe Walk is an alternative to Safe Ride, which drives callers to their destinations.

Both Safe Walk and Safe Ride fall under the direction of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona and represent only two examples of numerous efforts on campus to improve campus safety. Others include self-defense courses at the Women’s Resource Center, and talks the UA Police Department delivers to student groups and in student housing.

Just like Safe Walk, the Safe Ride program is trying to help improve campus safety but has had difficultly with demand in the past, said Lauren Smith, Safe Ride’s operations director.

The program, which offers free rides to students traveling in and around the University’s designated boundaries, purchased two new vehicles last semester.

The program is also in the process of finding a company that will set up an hold service for callers so that people don't have to continually call for an open line, Smith said.

Administrators are also looking into the possibility of expanding boundaries and service hours, which are now 6:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Friday.

“The expansion is great, and it’s something we definitely needed,” said Brittany Smith, Safe Ride’s administrative director and a double major in economics and math.

She added that Safe Ride has been able to do such work because of a $28,700 grant from the UA Parents & Family Association and an additional $50,000 from the UA administration.

“The demand now is much higher than what we’ve seen in the past, but we’ve been lucky to get money this last year that we’ve needed,” Smith added. “Our hope is that all students will use the service and be able to get a safe ride when they need one.”