USAC in search of funds for campus safety app

The original version of this article contained an error and has been changed. See the bottom of the article for additional information.

Undergraduate student government officials are searching for funding from different campus departments to create a campus safety smartphone application after returning a $15,500 allocation last week.

Undergraduate Students Association Council Internal Vice President Avi Oved and Student Wellness Commissioner Savannah Badalich are looking to the UCLA Community Programs Office and private sponsors to replace the lost funds.

The prospective campus safety application would be a customized UCLA version of a pre-existing smartphone application called Circle of 6. The app aims to increase user safety by allowing quick contact with six chosen people. Circle of 6 users choose six emergency contacts, with whom they can quickly send pre-typed messages in the event of an emergency.

The UCLA version of the app would include features such as specific contact info for university police, the Office of Residential Life and community service officers. The app would allow users to easily contact the UCPD sexual assault team and provides contact information for the Rape Treatment Center in Santa Monica.

Several students spoke in support of the UCLA version of the Circle of 6 app at the Jan. 7 USAC meeting, when Oved and Badalich requested surplus funds. The students said they would feel safer on campus if they had the app.

Angela Hill, a third-year political science student, said she thinks the consolidation of UCPD, community service officers and other resources within the UCLA version of the app could be very useful for herself and other students.

USAC allocated $15,500 of surplus funds from previous years to Oved and Badalich for the development of the campus safety application at the Jan. 7 council meeting.

However, Oved and Badalich chose to return the entire allocation to student groups on Jan. 14 because more than 100 students came to the USAC meeting and protested the surplus allocations.

Oved said the $15,500 of surplus money they initially received was enough to begin developing the app, but he and Badalich must now fundraise about $20,000 to make the app available to students.

Oved said he is looking into the Community Programs Office’s Student Risk Education Committee fund as a source of money to be put toward the cost of the app’s development. Oved and Badalich hope that it can provide a majority of funding for the application.

Tony Sandoval, the director of the Community Programs Office, said he thinks the campus safety application can receive some level of funding if Oved and Badalich’s proposal demonstrates a serious need for the app’s creation.

“The opportunity for a funding partnership is definitely there,” Sandoval said.

In addition to the Student Risk Education Committee fund, Oved said he plans to pursue private donations, public sponsorships and possible marketing funds from UCLA Recreation.

Badalich said she and Oved chose to request surplus funds to pay for the app after experiencing some pushback from the UCLA administration over the $20,000 price of development and the existence of a free version of the Circle of 6 app. Badalich did not specify which members of the administration she spoke with about the issue.

Pamela Thomason, the sexual harassment coordinator and Title IX officer at UCLA, said she had no knowledge of the proposal for a customized UCLA Circle of 6 app, even after its surplus funding was allocated and returned. Thomason could not be reached for further comment.

Encouraging students to download the basic Circle of 6 application for free could serve as a temporary solution, but Badalich said she thinks the free app would not be as effective as a UCLA version.

“Putting every sexual assault prevention resource in one place is why I thought $20,000 was a bargain for all it could do,” Badalich said.

Shannon Lasiter, a third-year history and political science student, said she thinks the app has some useful additional features, but that she would prefer to download the free version of the app rather than have USAC spend $20,000 on a customized version.

Once funding and development is completed, Oved said he plans to involve the Office of Residential Life and UCPD in educating students about how to use the app and the resources it provides.

The $20,000 cost of the app includes tech support from the Circle of 6 staff, training for resident assistants, integration with new student orientation programs and marketing material, Oved said.

Despite the disruption to the original timetable for its development and rollout to students, Oved and Badalich said they are still committed to making a custom campus safety app available to students.

“It can be done, but it will be a lot harder than expected,” Oved said.

Oved is scheduled to meet with Sandoval about funding from the Student Risk Education Committee on Thursday.

Correction: The proposed Circle of 6 app for UCLA would include contact information for community service officer service.