For many years now, Gustavus students have enjoyed the comfort and security of a Campus Safety Escort simply by calling the hotline. Recent changes, however, have  enabled Campus Safety vehicles to circuit a route around Gustavus.  The biggest change, though, is that there will be no more calling for escorts.

Campus Safety has created a Campus Safety Mobile Escort route that a Campus Safety employee will continually drive from 6:00 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. every night. The escort vehicle will travel a fixed route that starts at Norelius Hall and moves south and around the east side of campus. The driver will pick up and drop off at 14 designated stops. All pickup points are designated by the yellow and black “Safe Rides” sign posts.

It will take the driver 15-20 minutes to drive the route, picking up and dropping off students at the designated locations. Students needing an escort should stand by a designated Safe Rides sign, or the nearest building or entryway if available, and wait for the vehicle to arrive on its route. The vehicle will stop briefly, look for riders and then move on to the next pickup point.

Many students have been wondering why the recent change in the Campus Safety escort system was made. As most students already know, the point of the escort system is to simply provide safety and security for students traveling at night. Students, however, can easily take advantage of that privilege and can abuse the system as a regular transport system. “The whole idea of the system is a safety issue,” Sergeant Mike English of Campus Safety said. “In the years that the Campus Safety escort system has been in use, it’s become a question of misuse.  We’ll receive a call and have four or five people at a stop and we wonder if that escort system is really necessary.”

One issue with a circuit system is the possibility that students will not want to wait for the escort vehicle to make its way to whichever stop they may be waiting at.

“I picked up eight people in two and a half hours yesterday. People don’t want to wait for the car,” Sophomore Nate Cattanach, an escort driver, said. “Not a lot of people like it at all.  I guess I don’t mind it. A lot of people I pick up complain, and  a couple of escorts have been yelled at.  That hasn’t happened to me,” Cattanach said.

Before the change in policy, Campus Safety escorts had reported issues with students calling in and requesting a ride, but not showing up at the entrance or taking much longer than needed. “With the new system, we hope to fix this issue,” English said. “The calling-in to Campus Safety to request an escort would be abused.  Students would phone in and not show up for their escorts.

Employees would wait up to five minutes with three other calls on the line when they’re only supposed to wait for a minute, which backed up the escort system quite a bit.” English also mentioned that it would be difficult to determine which entrances students would wait for the escort at and whether students standing in the entrances were waiting for escorts or not.

In addition, the new system requires that the drivers drive around campus continuously.

“Now that I have done it for two weeks, I would say it uses about a third of a tank each night,” Junior Computer Science Major Ben Bickel said.

“Students also need to know that they can’t call for escorts anymore,” English said. “We won’t be answering calls about where the escort vehicles are. However, if escort vehicles do fail to show up at an assigned stop within 20 minutes, students are encouraged to call and inform Campus Safety. We want to maintain door-to-door service en route and would hope that students be at their designated pick up points as well for the 20-minute circuit to follow through.” For students unsure of pick up spots, Campus Safety has been promoting the new program with posters throughout the Campus Center, the Lund Center and the residence halls.

Campus Safety is hoping that the new escort system will be a permanent change on the campus. “Hopefully radio traffic won’t be so bogged down after this,” English said. “We are also hoping that once the weather clears, rides won’t be too frequently used anymore.”

For more information, 24-hour medical escorts or escorts after 1:30 a.m., call Campus Safety at 507-933-8888 (x8888).