While the Student Senate has yet to officially meet this term, one committee is already well on its way to accomplishing some of its goals. Last week The Poly published an article providing a few details on improvements regarding safety issues on campus and I would like to provide further details on what the Senate is doing to enact these changes.
Members of the Finance, Facilities, and Advancement committee have been working closely with both Public Safety and students to address a number of safety concerns. On March 31 this committee was able to sit down with members of Public Safety and the student body to discuss the possibility of creating a student-based safety escort service. Currently there is a system in place that allows students to call Public Safety and ask for an escort to somewhere on campus if they do not feel safe walking on their own. While this system works, there are concerns that Public Safety could be using that time to concentrate on other issues. Also, for those students who do not feel comfortable calling Public Safety for an escort, a student-based system would provide a safe peer-to-peer alternative.
Last fall, there were a number of incidents on and around campus where students fell victim to muggings and attacks. This is not acceptable. In response to this, the FFA decided to create a program that would give students the opportunity to make a positive contribution towards the solution of what the committee felt (and still feels) is the most serious problem RPI faces. Students’ academic process and college life should not be inhibited by safety issues and the committee has been looking into ways to fix this problem.
After this last meeting was held, the committee realized that there was a need to gauge student confidence levels in a student-based escort program. With that, I have decided to ask you all this week: will students feel comfortable with this student-based escort system? Will they feel like this is an adequate alternative to the Public Safety system?
While this issue will be covered in the next student government survey, the committee and the Senate as a whole would love to hear feedback from students on this alternative program. Through the planned survey and the feedback we will get from this column, we will hopefully get the data we need to proceed with this initiative. The committee does not have a set time frame or deadline for this project, but as soon as they have adequate data to implement the program they would like to move forward and with your help, this can be accomplished.
Please contact the FFA (ffa@rpisenate.com) about this issue and also please contact me personally (gm@rpi.edu) if you have any other concerns you would like us to address. I look forward to hearing from you all, and we will work to meet your needs accordingly.
