Outline:

Lede :ASWSU meeting focused on safety campaign with a few problems.
Safety initiative: ($40,000 budget)
*SafeWalk
-promotion plans
-volunteers
-lack of callers
*Lighting
*Good Samaritan policy
Other Topics
*UREC cameras
-new issues
*Cougar Quarterly
-go green or print?


ASWSU Executive Board Meeting
Kerry Gugliotto


Headline:

ASWSU Executive Members Stress the Issue of Safety

Summary:

A safety initiative was the focus of the Associated Students of Washington State University’s executive board meeting last night.

The initiative has undergone major work this semester, and though there have been a few bumps in the road, ASWSU plans to continue pushing the issue.

“The initiative was created as a response to crime rates last year, as well as events like the shootings at Virginia Tech,” the Director of Student Affairs, Joshua Hart said. “Though they ended up not being true, the reports of assault on campus have made the initiative a main focus for ASWSU.”

Hart is spearheading the safety campaign which has a $40,000 budget and includes a new Good Samaritan policy, adding lighting around campus, the Students for Safety Banquet, and SafeWalk, a weekend on-foot chaperone program.

Unfortunately, executive members have run into problems while attempting to launch these programs.

“We need to make SafeWalk a more utilized resource,” ASWSU President Derick En’Wezoh said. “The program has been open for a few weeks and has had less than 10 callers.”

En’Wezoh asked each executive member to volunteer for SafeWalk as well as work on promoting the program. In order to make SafeWalk known, ASWSU plans to put up signs, wear shirts, hand out key chains with SafeWalk’s number and hours on them and even create a Facebook group to educate students about the program.

“It is difficult to find a balance between being fiscially responsible when it comes to advertising programs like SafeWalk and actually getting the word out there,” ASWSU Vice-President Jay Hendrickson said.

Another issue ASWSU has encountered is completing their Good Samaritan policy. This is a new to the safety initiative that En’Wezoh met with the police chief and President Floyd to discuss. The policy will allow students to hold each other accountable, and more details should be available soon, said Richard Kilpatrick, an ASWSU executive member.

“Everyone agrees it is a good policy, we are just working on the details including how liable ASWSU will be,” En’Wezoh said. “I will advocate the policy intensely and won’t stop because we need something like this at WSU.”

Another way ASWSU will make campus more safe includes improving lighting around campus so students feel comfortable walking home, Kilpatrick said. “We have planned this for awhile. We are hoping to finally put our plans into action.”

The Students for Safety Banquet will feature Steve Kardian, a well known advocate for safety on campus, Hart said. The banquet is to educate students when it comes to being safe at WSU.

Other topics discussed at the meeting include the progress of adding cameras to the Student Recreational Center and whether or not the Cougar Quarterly should be printed or be strictly and online resource this year.

As far as the Cougar Quarterly goes, ASWSU plans to keep it as an online resource for this quarter, Kilpatrick said.

New issues create additional hoops for ASWSU to jump through in order to get cameras up in the SRC so members can check online how busy it is before going, En’Wezoh said. “We may need to take a new course because of liability issues, member privacy issues, funding as well as creating a new time frame.”

More information on this topic is going to be discussed at the President’s Student Advisory Board meeting this afternoon at 3:30 pm.

Related web sites:
http://www.aswsu.wsu.edu/safe_walk.aspx
http://www.campuspeak.com/speakers/kardian/
http://www.aswsu.wsu.edu/presidents_student_advisory_board.aspx
This article was written by Kerry Gugliotto,
Contacts:
Joshua Hart
(360) 391-5646
Joshua.hart@email.wsu.edu

Jay Hendrickson
(509) 521-2482
jh214@wsu.edu

Derick En’Wezoh
(509) 430-7410
derick_enwezoh@wsu.edu

Richard Kilpatrick
(425) 301-0131
richardkilpatrick@hotmail.com