Safe Walk Deserves Adequate Funding
ASG’s initiative to keep students safe faces a lack of support from the university
Safe Walk, a program that employs students to safely walk their peers home at night, is used in over 1,000 college campuses across the country. However, Safe Walk SCU is having trouble finding its start.
Although the program has over 100 students interested in becoming a Safe Walker and another 10 interested in organizing the program, the administration has yet to find secure funding for the program.
Safe Walk SCU was started in order for students to feel more comfortable walking late at night. The American College Health Association published in 2021 that 38.3% of college students feel very safe on their campus at night, and only 15.2% feel very safe in the community surrounding their school at night. These numbers drop to just 22.8% and 6.2% respectively among female college students.
When Safe Walk began in the fall quarter of 2021, the Associated Student Government had intended to fund the program. However, the funding soon fell through and Safe Walk was left to find another source for funding. As the Wellness Center has been overworked on campus, they are unable to house Safe Walk as it stands. Safe Walk has not been approved to expand at this time, leaving the program understaffed and inoperable on various nights and putting the safety of the Safe Walkers and their peers at risk.
Safe Walk SCU hires five Safe Walkers every night and pays them $25 for their three hours of work. Therefore, to allow Safe Walk to be fully operational, a budget must be set at $4,500 per quarter. It must be noted that this funding has not been found at a time when the university has announced its endowment to be at 1.43 billion dollars, and multiple students reported sexual assault cases during the fall quarter.
Large donors, alumni, and the administration of the university have been contacted by the Safe Walk team with no leads. We are being told that funding will hopefully be secured by the spring quarter. Still, administrators are only willing to provide $10,000 per year, if this ever happens. The Safe Walk team intends to spread awareness about this issue and hopefully secure funding immediately.
As the leader of this program, I am extremely discouraged by the lack of support and funding provided by Santa Clara. This program is not negotiable. Santa Clara students must be provided with the option to get home safely and not be confined to calling Campus Safety Services (CSS), which only operates on campus. Additionally, Judge Ladoris Cordell’s audit of CSS last year concluded that “CSS’s training, verbiage, and activities also sends a message that it is primarily law enforcement focused.”
As students of this university, we demand to be heard. We are asking to create jobs on campus and provide students with confidential walks late into the night, and we are being denied. The university has shown verbal support, but if they were truly in support, this program would be growing. Instead, students are left with no number to call.
Safe Walk SCU would like to thank all supporters of the program, including students, ASG advisor Tedd Vanadilok and all faculty who have shown their support. We hope to see this program continue to grow.
Safe Walk will officially launch for the Winter Quarter on Jan. 8 and will be operable on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 10:00 pm - 1:00 am. To use Safe Walk during these times, please call 408-554-4410.