Written by Elizabeth Tiemann
Safe Ride is a service that students may access Monday through Sunday, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., according to Colorado College’s website. The official duties of the service are outlined as: “Students and employees alike are encouraged to walk in groups of three or more, especially during the hours of darkness. However, when this is not possible, please use the College’s Safe Ride Service.”
On Friday, Sept. 16, however, Safe Ride was not in operation. Senior Sadie Cole called to use the Safe Ride service and was turned down.
“My friends and I called Safe Ride to go to our friend’s house five blocks away on Friday night around 9 p.m. for a pregame,” Cole recounted. “No one picked up, so we tried Campus Safety and they told us that no one had signed up for that Safe Ride shift, so they were not running that night. We asked if Campus Safety could give us a ride and they said no since we were in a group. We ended up paying for an uber to go to the house.”
When Nicholas Calkins, Associate Director of Campus Safety, was asked to comment on the lack of operational service that night, he replied, “Safe Ride and CCAT are student-run operations, and we had both drivers call out sick that night and were unable to find other students to cover. As always, Campus Safety continued that evening to respond to requests for rides when officers were available.”
Prompted by the effect the lack of service had on her and her group, Cole answered, “We were a bit frustrated that there was no safe way provided by the school to travel around that night considering it was a Friday and many students would be going out and walking from house to house. Walking with one or two other people does not guarantee safety, and the college should have a way for students to travel safely if they are putting in the effort to do so.”
She continued, “My friends and I use Safe Ride a lot because we live off campus and pretty far away from our friends’ houses. We feel safer getting driven home at night even if we are in a group because we live right next to an alley way that can be pretty dangerous even if we are with other people. We definitely rely on Safe Ride to feel comfortable going out at night and so it is disappointing when they are unavailable to us, particularly on a Friday night.”
Sophomore Erica Williams, who has previously utilized Safe Ride, critiqued a different aspect of the service saying, “[Safe Ride] can be useful; however, I have found that they sometimes go to the wrong place to pick you up.” As for the lack of service on Sept. 16, she commented, “It worries me that they didn’t have someone on duty, whether they were a student or a staff member, to pick up the shift because Friday night is one of the primary nights for students to be out, and whether they still don’t know how to get around campus or they are too drunk to get back to their dorm, people need that safety net.”
Sophomore Ethan Brand-LaBarge added, “Doesn’t that inherently undermine the purpose of Safe Ride if on a night when students are more likely to need it, it isn’t functioning?”