Students will soon have another option to safely walk home on campus and to Greek housing during the late hours of school nights.
The program, SafeWalk, is a student government initiative to improve campus safety by providing students with trusted peers to walk them home at night. It is modeled after a program that has been in place at the University of California-Berkeley for decades.
The program will accept applications for paid walking buddies until Nov. 30.
Once the program begins on Jan. 11, students will be able to contact a dispatcher in the Undergraduate Library or sign up on the program’s Web site for SafeWalkers to walk with them.
Walkers will work in groups of two, one woman and one man, and will bike to meet the student on campus. The two will then dismount and walk the student home or to a desired campus location.
Walkers — who will be trained by the Department of Public Safety — will be paid $8 per hour. The program will be free for all students to use, and they will be able to use it as often as they want.
Organizers said they hope to hire 30 to 40 students to work as walkers — about six per night. The program will run from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. from Sunday to Thursday.
It will be funded by about $11,323 from the student safety and security committee and $8,870 from the Student Library Advisory
Board. About 96 percent of these funds will be returned to students as wages, said Jonathan Tugman, student body secretary.
“It’s student-run, student-driven, students helping students,” he said.
Tugman, who is also one of the program’s organizers, said SafeWalk will be ideal for students who do not want to wait for the P2P.
He said the program will be more convenient for short distances and will be able to go places not served by the P2P van or the library shuttle.
“We have a very good transportation system, but there are gaps in the coverage,” he said.
Former Student Body President J. J. Raynor began the push for a walking program to improve campus safety.
A March survey conducted by student government indicated that 70 percent of students said areas of campus made them feel unsafe and that they would feel safer walking with DPS-trained students.
Junior Christina Lynch, one of the program’s founders, said the goal is to find “a stranger you’d want to walk with, someone you’d feel safe with.”
The group is looking for applicants who are responsible, personable and lack a criminal record.
At the moment, the program will only extend to campus locations, but program organizers want to expand to off-campus locations as soon as possible.
Students interviewed Wednesday were ambivalent about whether they would use the service since many said there were usually other people walking at the same time.
“Usually there are other students walking around, but if it’s just myself, I feel a lot less safe,” said senior Caitlin Leach.
How to sign up
Student government is recruiting paid employees for the SafeWalk program. Employees will be paid $8 an hour and are expected to work a minimum of two nights a week from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Applications can be found at studentorgs.unc.edu/studgov.
Printed copies of applications are due Nov. 30 in the student government office at Student Union, Room 2501.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
