PLYMOUTH – Why after six years is Safe Walk calling it quits?? For the past several years Plymouth State College/ University has offered Safe Walk as a way to provide students a safe way back to their residence hall or apartment.
This program was a collaboration of students and University Police. “The process of safe walk was very simple,” said Rebecca Emmons, a Safe Walk affiliate. “The program would get a call, go pick the person up from where they are and then escort them to where they wanted to be dropped off.”
Although the intent of Safe Walk was to protect students and ensure their safety, this program was disbanded in spring of 2004. It was deemed unsuccessful because, according to Emmons, “The calls semester prior had dwindled until if we got one prank call a night it was impressive.” Once the calls dwindled people stopped wanting to volunteer their time because they felt it was a waste when they could be volunteering their time with a more productive project.
Plymouth State student, Jill Marshalka states, “I haven’t been put in a situation where I would need to call Safe Walk, but it was nice to know that the option was there.”
There was an effort by the students who worked for safe walk to make it more visible and usable for other students, but still there were no phone calls. Emmons also offered “a program like this will only be offered when students start wanting to use and participate in the program. People may want the program but it will not come into being until enough students are willing to put the time into it to make it work.”
A Plymouth State Alumni, Erik Bergmann, who used to work for Safe Walk offered “a reason there is no need for safe walk may be because students understand the importance in traveling in groups.” However that isn’t the case for all situations and students should know that they should call campus police if they are ever feeling threatened or unsafe.