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SAFEwalk services has been informed that Associated Students of Madison will not be funding the unlimited SAFEride cab rides home for staff members at night anymore.
SAFEwalk supervisor Troy Ruland was informed last week his SAFEwalk staff will not be offered the unlimited service of cab rides and if the service, which is included in their policy, is to be continued, it will have to be funded from another source.
“ASM has communicated that they aren’t going to pay for more than four cab rides a month anymore — the same amount offered to students on campus,” Ruland said.
He added ASM funds the SAFEride program, while Transportation Services funds SAFEwalk. With this new decision, Transportation Services will start to absorb the cost of any additional cab rides home the staff requests, according to Ruland.
According to SAFEwalk walker Eric Bieganski, the staff works an average of eight to 12 nights per month.
“I generally work at least 12 times a month, and I have been using the cab rides a little more especially after the assault a few weeks ago,” Bieganski said. “I didn’t know about this policy change until recently.”
Ruland said staff found out about the change just this week when they had a meeting. SAFEwalk staff gave their feedback and ideas about the change in where funding will come from.
It is within the policy that staff is provided a ride home after a late night of work, according to Ruland. The switch in funding coming from ASM and moving to Transportation Services was not about budgetary issues, but consistency. For example, Memorial Union workers, or other university workers are not afforded free, unlimited rides home, while SAFEwalk workers were allowed unlimited rides.
SAFEwalk dispatcher Jesse Nelson explained how it made sense, though, for SAFEwalk to have the option of a ride home at night.
“After providing a service for an entire evening to make campus safe, we don’t want that service eliminated for us when we go home,” Nelson said.
According to Ruland, however, the SAFEride program is to be used as a last resort for both the staff and the student body.
“We don’t want to send our staff out at 3 a.m. to walk home, but the cab rides are still a last resort,” Ruland said. “We encourage them to plan appropriately; many of them use the bus, bike or walk to work.”
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The people that work at SAFEwalk service deserve “free” cab rides home after their evening shifts. The University of Wisconsin increased their 2009 tuition over 5% and tacked on a $750 fee for the Madison Initiative. While I totally do not agree with the the 5% tuition increase and the additional Madison Initiative fee. I feel that all the undergraduate students deserve the ability to attend evening function at the university and be assured that the SAFEwalk and SAFEride services will be there for them. It was part of the “full package” the university sold to me in all their admission brochures and during SCOR. Anything the university does not to support or cut the funding for the service would be a “breach of contract” by the university.
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Where is this contract that you signed? I’d like to see it. The SAFE services are simply things that the University does to help keep students safe.
As the article states, other students working late on campus do not get an exception for SAFEcab, why should SAFEwalk employees?
If you feel that they should because they are contributing to SAFE services, let me ask you this. Should students working in the Financial Aid Office get more financial aid than other students? It’s the same concept.
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I don’t know about you, but I went to SOAR, not SCOR.
Hi, welcome to the University of Wisconsin. Please take a moment and look around, realize what’s going on, and appreciate it. This place is amazing.
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I think SAFE services should have a safe way to get home at the end of their shift. But so should food service employees, who have mandatory close shifts until about 2 am. Our campus needs to find a way to ensure that everybody gets home safely, and clearly the program needs tweaking in order to be able to afford to do this.
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I would much rather pay a tuition increase that goes to ensure people get home safe than for some undergraduate initiative. Seriously, take my $750 and give it to people who have to walk home, late at night, after a work shift. Or the money you spent giving away free pizza on library mall the other day. I love free pizza, but i consider safety to be far more important than free pizza or free cookies.
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Old article but - newsflash - I used to work at SAFE and we have people who were allowed more than 4 rides per month because of their work schedule. This included some union employees and non-university employees. The catch was always that the SAFEbuses had to be done for the night (like at 3 am when the SAFEride Dispatcher leaves work).