UNC’s SafeWalk prepares for off-campus growth

Today, SafeWalk will begin the first phase of an expansion aimed at better catering to off-campus students by eventually serving all locations within a 20-minute walking radius from campus.

SafeWalk, a student government-run program, has served students at on-campus locations, Greek housing, Granville Towers and parts of Franklin Street and Rosemary Street.

Through the program, teams of SafeWalkers accompany students to or from these locations Sunday through Thursday between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m.

To accommodate more students beginning this spring, the program will start a three-phase expansion plan to extend its reach off campus. This addition, which is sponsored by UNC organizations and some local businesses, will not increase student fees, said Christina Lynch, director of SafeWalk.

By the end of the semester, Lynch said she expects the program to reach up to Caldwell Street, which intersects with Church Street.

In the first phase of expansion, SafeWalk will extend down Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the Mill Creek Condominiums.

These locations, which include Hillsborough Street, Henderson Street and North Street, were chosen based on anonymous responses to surveys sent out nine months ago, Lynch said.

Students said they were excited by the changes.

“I’m afraid of the dark,” said Simone Trotman, a freshman nursing major. “I use SafeWalk all the time. It’s nice to know that they are working to help other students as well.”

With the expansion plan, students who before did not use SafeWalk said they might find it useful.

“There are a lot of frightening people out there,” said junior Nuffy Swanson, a journalism and exercise and sport science major who lives off campus. “I would never ask SafeWalk to accompany me to the edge of campus to walk the rest of the way alone. I might consider using it if it were to go off-campus.”

The program will add a fourth team of two walkers, Lynch said.

Lynch said the program will not become less efficient as a result of the change.

“Right now we do 20-minute walks to South Campus,” she said. “It doesn’t extend the time traveled by team members. It only increases the number of directions teams can travel,” said Lynch.

Dean Blackburn, assistant dean of students, said safety remains primary concern.

“The SafeWalk program is using a slow-growth process that I see as highly beneficial to campus,” he said.

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