5-SURE On Foot, the Office of Alcohol Policy and Education (OAPE)’s new security escort service funded by the Stanford University Department of Public Safety, was unofficially launched last night at Full Moon on The Quad (FMOTQ).
According to Ralph Castro, director of OAPE, two of the five student staffers were assisted by sober monitors in walking around finding students who requested help to walk back home from the event. He added that the pilot went well.
“We wanted to gauge feedback from students and know what they’d like to get from the program, [as well as] feedback from the future staff about what [aspects of the job] they feel comfortable with,” said Betty Hancock ‘15, 5-SURE student coordinator.
The new service, scheduled to officially launch within two weeks, will feature student staff members roving around high-traffic areas on campus on Friday and Saturday nights to escort students safely back to their own residences.
Jarreau Bowen ‘07 M.A. ‘08, assistant director and outreach education coordinator at OAPE, emphasized that although the campus is generally safe and well-lit, there are some areas where students don’t feel safe walking to and from alone. He added that the presence of 5-SURE On Foot enables more escort services to be provided over longer distances by lessening the burden on the currently offered 5-SURE vehicle and golf cart escort service.
5-SURE On Foot is a way of responding to increased student demand of the 5-SURE service, which Hancock believes is due to yearly increases in the student body as well as an increased comfort level in calling 5-SURE.
“[5-SURE is] for anybody who feels like they’re in a dangerous situation on campus, and who wants to have someone by their side,” Hancock said.
This includes students under the influence of alcohol, who aren’t comfortable walking home by themselves after dark and who are unsure of their way around campus.
According to David Kaczorowski, administrative office manager at OAPE, the walking program was first put on the table last year during a discussion of how to best meet students where they are and help them return to their dorms.
According to Hancock, the 5-SURE On Foot program is a nice complement that fills in the gaps left by 5-SURE.
Mason Black ‘16 echoed this statement by qualifying 5-SURE On Foot as a good idea.
“Part of the issue [with 5-SURE] is that people who are already on the Row drinking…there’s a potential that they’re [either] too drunk to think to call 5-SURE [or] they might not know about it,” Black said. “So I think it’s a good idea to actually have people there to have conversations with [people].”
Among other issues, 5-SURE On Foot addresses the modeling of bystander intervention behavior.
“To do something, it helps to see other people doing it,” Kaczorowski said. “[We can] build that impulse into students because they see [their peers] doing it.”
According to Hancock, the decreased formality of the program also renders it much more accessible.
Contact Nikhita Obeegadoo at nix19 ‘at’ stanford.edu.