Kaitlyn Hertford called the Department of Public Safety for a walking escort after mass ended on a Sunday night last semester. Then she waited in the dark outside of Alibrandi Catholic Center. Fifteen minutes. Twenty minutes. Forty-five minutes.

An hour later, her escorts arrived.

‘It’s 9:30 at night and I’m all alone, and anything can happen, yet they can’t get to me within 20 minutes,’ said Hertford, a sophomore acting major. ‘Something needs to be changed.’

This past summer, that change occurred. The DPS Walking Escort Program underwent staff adjustments and altered its policy to make the program more effective, said DPS Chief Tony Callisto. It used to be mandatory for two student marshals to accompany their escort to his or her destination. DPS now provides radios for all marshals so that only one can accompany a student while still keeping them safe, Callisto said.

‘We’re actually increasing the service by allowing our student marshals to be able to take that escort, with a radio, on their own,’ Callisto said. ‘What that does for us is doubles the availability of walking escorts. It would decrease the time by half that somebody may have to wait, in many cases.’

Callisto explained that a big problem they were having with the program was that student marshals, who are paid SU students, failed to show up to work, creating a shortage of walking escorts and sometimes making it impossible to run the program. Now, if only one worker shows up, the program can still be effective.

Lt. John Sardino, DPS community resources and events commander who works closely with Students for Community Safety, said the change is a positive one. Sardino said a lot of the success of the program depends on the student marshals who serve as students’ escorts.

‘We looked at it and we thought, ‘We have a student marshal out there with the jacket, and direct communication to DPS, why not put one-person teams out there?” Sardino said.

By sending out one-person teams, when more than one student marshal arrives to work, DPS will be able to have more marshals on campus providing the service. This will decrease a student’s wait time.

Hertford’s suggestion for the program is right in line with DPS’ solution.

‘They honestly need more of the escorts if they’re actually going to make it effective,’ she said.

Though the changes are an effort to enhance the Walking Escort Program, Lt. Jill Lentz, a senior administrator at DPS, said very few students use the program in the first place.

Between Aug. 21 and Sept. 24 there were 1,178 total escort requests, with only 174 of those being walking escort requests, according to a cursory search conducted by Lentz. Other types of escorts include the OrangeWatch programs and off-campus escort services.

Walking escorts are typically on-campus escorts, Lentz said. They will meet up with a student and walk with them, usually to a residence hall, parking lots, garages or academic buildings.

Sardino said not as many students use the Walking Escort Program as he would like. He advises students to use it as often and as frequently as they feel the need to.

Sardino stressed that a lot of the success of the program depends on the student marshals who serve as students’ escorts. He said there are openings in the student marshal program, and hopes more students look into the opportunity to help their community and fellow students.

While the changes to the Walking Escort Program may be a step in the right direction, the program still has its flaws. Just this past Sunday, Hertford again called the escort program to go to a mass at Alibrandi. After waiting 20 minutes, she called them back and said she was going to walk alone.

Hertford said another positive change to the program would be a time limit, or, at the very least, updates on when exactly the escort will be arriving.

‘If an escort doesn’t get to a person within 10 minutes, they need to call that person and say, ‘I’m sorry, the escort is on their way,” she said.

mequalte@syr.edu

Published on September 28, 2009 at 12:00 pm