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UNM students will roam campus tonight, checking for safety hazards and inadequate lighting at the semiannual Campus Safety walk.
Student conduct officer and event organizer Rob Burford said the safety walks have been a UNM tradition since the ‘90s. He said students lost interest in the walks as time went on and that they were actually canceled for four years because the turnout was so low.
“We couldn’t evaluate the whole campus with only 15 students,” he said. “It’s really student-driven.”
He said students took a renewed interest in the activity after an incident in 2010 in which a young woman was stabbed outside the Anthropology building.
The walks are now held in the fall and on the anniversary of the attack in the spring.
“The situation in 2010 helped to revive this,” he said. “I think it’s a great thing for students to be a part of so they can have a say in campus safety, especially at night.”
On the walk, students will patrol the campus, armed with flashlights, maps and pens. Participants will look for lighting outages; tripping hazards, such as uneven sidewalks or unruly shrubs; and places on campus that could use more lighting, blue emergency poles or other safety precautions.
Students will write comments about potential hazards they notice on the walk, and circle areas and lights, represented by red dots, on a map to show damaged equipment. The suggestions and comments are then given to the Physical Plant Department, which makes repairs or installs new equipment.
UNM student Grace Mayer said campus safety is a main concern for people who live on campus. She said that recently, a friend of hers was chased by a man near campus on her way home from mass and that, although she got away, the incident left her shaken.
“I think it is a brilliant idea,” she said, referring to the walk. “If you’re any girl walking around at night without mace or anything, there’s a chance you could get raped, and rape is nothing to laugh about.”
Burford said student input is crucial in making the campus a safer place.
“We just don’t want to have somebody from the Physical Plant to give one assessment, we want several students’ assessments as well,” he said.
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Burford said about 100 students are expected to attend the event tonight. He said most student volunteers are recruited from residence halls on campus, Lobo Village and fraternities and sororities. He said several resident assistants and community assistants have already committed to attend with some of their residents.
“All those groups live on campus so they have more of an investment in coming out,” he said.
Burfod said even a simple activity like the safety walk helps improve campus safety by providing better lit walkways and an overall feeling of security.
“As far as crimes that might happen outside, I haven’t seen a big issue with this, but there have been issues which is why we have the walk,” he said. “And the perception of people feeling safe is also important.”
DeVargas Hall resident adviser Mari Young said she hopes to bring several of her residents to the event.
“There’s a lot of areas on campus that people might not readily know are unsafe or could be potentially unsafe,” she said. “When you do a walk-through, you get to see what lights are out, which areas don’t have blue poles, especially in isolated areas around campus.”
