Volunteers Seek A Safer Campus

SafeStreets volunteers are a diverse group--only one similarity, in fact, brings them together late at night: they have all taken an active role in campus safety.

Cornelia Tietke '91 is an American History and Literature concentrator whose main role in the group is to recruit people from Dunster House. She says she is frustrated with the limited response that the service has received. "I've done two shifts so far and have been kind of disappointed with the response," Tietke says. "I think the people who know about it and use it regularly appreciate it, but we definitely need more publicity."

Tietke says she hopes the group will be able to counteract the embarrassment some students feel when asking someone else for help. "Calling SafeStreets is a smart thing to do," Tietke says. "It's not cowardly."

Daniel Sheinberg '91 is an Applied Math concentrator who's a Thursday night "regular." "I was actually working the very first SafeStreets shift in which someone actually called," says Sheinberg. "In the beginning, all our business came from walk-ins who stayed at the Science Center late to work."

Sheinberg says that the volunteers are optimistic, and hope that SafeStreets will gain popularity by next year. "I have a great time doing it and the loss of sleep really doesn't bother me," Sheinberg says. "I stay up late to do problem sets on Thursday nights anyway."

David A. Bell '89 is a Physics concentrator who heard about SafeStreets through a friend. "I've been working for the program since it started," says Bell. Despite the slow nights, Bell feels that SafeStreets is well worth his time. "If we prevent even one assault, it's worth it," he says.

Fiona J. Fox '91 is one of the program's supervisors. "I'm [Sosland's] roommate, so it was kind of hard for me to not get swept up in the whole SafeStreets project--not that I didn't want to get involved anyway," says Fox. "Hopefully SafeStreets will be around for a long time."

Chris M. VanDyke '89 is a Social Studies concentrator who plans to be much more active in SafeStreets now that his thesis is complete. "If the fact that the SafeStreets program has caught on as well as it has in the middle of the year doesn't prove that there is a real need for it, I don't know what else will," says VanDyke.