Making it Home Safe

Many people have experienced the fear of walking home alone at night.  One thing that many students are unaware of is Safe Walk. This is an organization that was “established to provide students, faculty and staff with safe escorts from one part of campus to another when they may not feel comfortable walking alone,” said Domenica A. Medaglia-Brown. 

Medaglia-Brown is a Residence Director for the University Apartments. She is also an instructor for the RAD course here at PSU and co-advises the Student Support Foundation. 

Safe Walk is an organization run through Residential life that allows students to have an alternative to making the scary trek by themselves. Unbeknownst to many, Safe Walk was initially created at PSU in 1992 and died off in the early 2000s because not many used this resource, and there was a lack of volunteers. It was reintroduced to the PSU campus in 2012 “due to students reporting not feeling as safe walking on campus at night,” said Medaglia-Brown.

Currently Safe Walk covers only on campus locations. Many don’t realize that this does include the Ice Arena. If a student is looking to travel to an off campus location, Safe Walk will take them to an on campus location near their destination.

A big concern running through many minds is whether or not they will encounter trouble if they have been consuming alcohol underage. While this is very much illegal, Safe Walk’s Volunteers have one goal: to safely walk students from one part of campus to another. 

In other words, Safe Walk is aimed at keeping students safe. They are trained to call for help for the student’s safety if a he or she is severely intoxicated or unable to walk.

In a past interview with Alexander Cabeceiras in 2012, Medaglia-Brown said, “This is a Safe Walk. We are not here to judge. We’re not going to ask you any questions, or anything you don’t want to talk about.” This service cares about students not being put in dangerous, potentially life-threatening situations, because they were afraid to ask for help.

When asked why Safe Walk was important for PSU, Medaglia-Brown said it exists to provide “an additional element of safety on campus.”

Another question one could be asking is who these people who are walking them home are. Trained volunteers will be the ones walking students from their current location to their destination.

Volunteers participate in training set up by ResLife. One can be trained individually or as a group. Safe Walk is always looking for more volunteers and is asking that anyone who would like the opportunity to join their cause contact a Residence Director or the ResLife main office in order to set up time to train. 

This beneficial service is available on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. It runs from 10pm until 2am. Everyone should put the number for Safe Walk in their phones so that they are able to utilize this resource if ever a need arise: 603-726-1358.