5-SURE, or Students United for Risk Elimination, aims to foster community safety by mitigating the risks of walking alone at night — including theft, assault and harassment — by offering free rides, water and snacks.

“We get a lot of ‘you’re doing the lord’s work’ comments,” said Hayden Henry ’25, student co-leader of 5-SURE on Foot. “The most endearing interactions are when people come up to us and are like, ‘Hey you guys really helped me out,’ whether it was last week, last quarter or at the start of the year.”

5-SURE Safe Rides provides free transportation to students from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. every night, while 5-SURE on Foot offers free water, snacks and walks home from outside Robert Moore South (BOB) on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.

5-SURE emerged as Students United for Rape Elimination (SURE) in the late 1970s as a student-led organization to fight rape on Stanford’s campus. The initiative began with $900 from the Office of Student Affairs, donations for flashlights, whistles and badges from the Stanford Police Department and student volunteers who walked or biked alongside their peers.

At the time, some students criticized SURE for presenting a male-founded and male-run organization as the solution to a crime often perpetrated by men against women. Other students argued that the initiative promoted women’s safety while traveling across campus at night. SURE responded by adding women to their team of escorts, who worked in teams of two.

After stagnating in the 1980, the organization reemerged as 5-SURE in the 1990s. The service operated seven days a week and provided golf cart rides instead of walking escorts. In 2011, 5-SURE rebranded as Students United for Risk Elimination to encompass the wider range of risks associated with walking home alone at night.

“There doesn’t need to be a stigma around using 5-SURE,” Henry said. “You can be completely stone sober and come and get a pop-tart and have a great conversation with us. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with coming to 5-SURE. There should be no shame or guilt associated with it.”

Ocheze Amuzie ’22 M.A. ’24, a writer for The Daily, said she felt “heartened” by the presence of 5-SURE and the student employees dedicated to seeing peers “have a good time but not a dangerously good time.” 

“I remember going to parties with my friends and they would always be on the corner with their snacks,” she said. “It was always really nice to be crazy [drunk] and have all these people taking care of you.”

Joe Kaczorowski, Assistant Director & Program Supervisor for the Office of Substance Use Programs (SUPER), told The Daily the “most satisfying” part of his job was watching “student leaders go off and into the world” after working with them closely through 5-SURE. “It sounds silly, but I love writing recommendation letters,” he said.

Kaczorowski said he most remembers an interaction with a student following the first campus party after the COVID-19 lockdown ended. “I came out to help, and a student walked up to the table. He didn’t know who I was, but he was like, ‘I’m so glad 5 Sure on Foot is back … You were here my freshman year, and you literally saved my life,’’ Kaczorowski said.

Amuzie estimated that she uses Safe Rides at least once a week. She described recent wait times as ranging between five and 45 minutes and characterized her experience with drivers as “overwhelmingly positive.”

“One time, there was this girl who was playing the Phineas and Ferb soundtrack as she was driving, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, wait, turn it up,’ and we sang along to ‘Squirrels in My Pants,’” she said. “It was a really silly moment.”

Safe Rides student driver Joanne dePierre ’26, a staff writer and DEI co-chair for The Daily, emphasized the student community at 5-SURE. “We always go ‘Ugh, guess what this passenger did today?’ and then we share stories that we can laugh about,” she said.

DePierre told The Daily that she tries her “absolute hardest and best to not work on weekends” because this is typically when people “get the most sick.” She shared that last year, during the one late night weekend shift she decided to work, “on the last ride of the night – the last ride – the last passenger got sick everywhere.”

“And I’m like, ‘Well that’s great. That’s great,’” dePierre said.

5-SURE provides buckets with liners in every vehicle and charges a $250 cleaning fee to any passenger who vomits or makes a mess in the vehicle. “A vehicle that has been vomited in cannot be used for the remainder of the evening, and must be taken off-line until it is cleaned. This only adds to our already long wait times. Be considerate of everyone else,” the 5-SURE website reads.

5-SURE Safe Rides student manager Marilyn Garcia-Valle ’26 had a different perspective from dePierre. “I love working Friday and Saturday nights when everybody’s just out and drunk and plastered,” she said. “They’re the funniest people ever.”