HSU Introduces New Student Safety Escort Program

Link

Embed

Copy and paste this HTML code into your webpage to embed.

ARCATA, Ca. (KIEM) – HSU is improving their campus safety by adding more eyes and ears. Ten students will be joining safety escort program.

These new student safety escorts will help to improve campus safety. Sometimes, students feel intimidated to ask help from a police officers. But by having a peer escort, it could help ease students and make them feel more comfortable.

“When we came up with this program through feedback with other students,” said Chief Donn Peterson of University Police Department.

“They felt like ‘I might not call a police officer for an escort, but I would absolutely love to be escorted by a colleague or another student.’”

But it also gives more opportunities for students on campus.

 “It offers more jobs to students and that’s the best thing,” said Karyne Hoppe, HSU Student Coordinator for University Police.”

“If you’re on campus and you’re working, it’s easier to go to your dorm and back and forth to class.”

Those who are safety escorts work from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., and with student involvement, it frees up resources for UPD.

“If an officer were walking a student across campus, they might not be able to answer a call,” said Chief Peterson, “if there’s a call for service that an officer would have to respond that frees them to do those things.”

Students say, having their peers act as safety escorts makes them more inclined to want to use the program.

It can especially help those are new to Humboldt State.

With students keeping their peers company it creates a safe space, where they can reach out to someone their more comfortable talking to.

“It’s a comfort zone for the students to talk peer to peer instead of an authority figure they feel uncomfortable with,” said Hoppe.

By having this new program, it can hopefully also improve the relationship between police and students.

“There’s also some of the dialogue that takes place right now with the status that police have in our culture and we’re really working hard to overcome that and I think this is a piece of that,” says Chief Peterson.