Safety in numbers!
For students who study late on campus or are walking from one
residence hall to another, CSU offers a program devoted to keeping
everybody safe at night.
Campus Service Officers go through an extensive background check
and a series of interviews with members of the CSU staff, as well
as one-on-one interviews with members of the police department,
said senior John Matzke, a history major who is a member of Safe
Walk. This is in order to guarantee the honesty of every CSO.
“Our job, beyond walking people home, is to be the eyes and ears
for the police department,” Matzke said.
Safe Walk is available for students from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. seven
days a week. The program covers an extensive area where people can
be ‘safe-walked’ home.
The CSU Police Department determines who is employed with Safe
Walk; they are hired through CSUPD.
The hiring process includes an extensive application, followed
by an integrity interview consisting of ethical scenarios and
questions, followed by an invite back to attend an academy, which
embodies approximately 20 hours of training involving the use of
radios, policies and guidelines.
The employees of Safe Walk are members of the CSUPD.
“Right now there are 17 [employees],” said CSUPD Corporal Dave
Hurley.
For physical requirements, employees need to be able to handle
their four-hour shift, Hurley said. They could be walking around
for the entire shift on a busy night and need to be fit enough to
survive that exertion.
There is not a psychological examination, Hurley said. The
integrity interview mainly deals with the psychological side of the
employee. As for academic requirements, employees need a 2.0 GPA
requirement.
“This is my fourth year (with Safe Walk)…I wanted to get
involved on campus and it’s a great program,” Matzke said.
Matzke believes that Safe Walk does make the campus a safer
place.
“The people we walk are so grateful for it,” Matzke said.
The statistics for the utilization of Safe Walk from two years
ago shows the popularity of Safe Walk.
“We had almost 500 safe walks throughout the spring/fall
semester,” Hurley said.
Safe Walk covers the whole campus and an approximate one block
to two block perimeter off campus.
The Aggie and University villages are also included in the areas
that Safe Walk covers.
“We’ve got a pretty wide open range,” Hurley said.
Emergency phones from which Safe Walk can be contacted are
dispersed throughout campus.
“I believe currently there are 23 emergency phones,” Hurley
said.
This year there have been male callers, Matzke said. This is the
first time they have had males call since Matzke has been working
with Safe Walk.
“It’s not that they’re scared, it’s that they’ve been told they
should be,” Matzke said.
Matzke enjoys walking the callers home. “It’s great, we build
friendships,” Matzke said.
Safe Walk, however, has had difficulty with university funding.
The funding has not changed since 1991, Matzke said.
This is a problem since the program continues to expand and the
number of employees increases. The lack of appropriate funding also
causes a decrease in advertising the program, which leaves fewer
students knowledgeable about the program.
“Our program is so under-funded, it’s really been put on the
back burner,” Matzke said.
Brittany Norman, a junior food science and human nutrition
major, was unaware of what the program was.
“I would definitely use it, if I were alone at night and there
wasn’t anyone around,” Norman said, after being informed of what
the program is.
“I’ve felt tempted to use it before,” said junior Brenda Garcia.
“It’s definitely a good option if you get scared.”
To use Safe Walk call 491-1155 or pick up one of the outdoor
emergency/service phone throughout campus.
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