At UCLA, students rely on resources such as BruinAlert and Community Service Officers to inform and ensure their security, but, as of late, both have been ineffective.
In theory, CSO’s evening van and walking escort services ensure students are safe returning to their dorms or apartments late at night through Westwood, but the two services end too early to benefit the student body to their optimal potential.
About 10 crimes were reported in Westwood Village and parts of campus during the last week of October alone. People walking alone at night are most prone to being victims of these crimes.
Extending CSO’s service hours would make the campus and the surrounding area more accessible to students who might otherwise feel too unsafe to participate in club activities, study at the Powell or Biomedical libraries, work late-night hours or run experiments in one of UCLA’s state-of-the-art labs, and also give peace of mind to students who already pursue late-night endeavors.
Currently, CSO hours are limited by a lack of state funding specifically earmarked for the escort service through the police department, said one of the program’s managers, Matt Ellis, and the vans are funded by UCLA Transportation.
To add service later in the day, CSO Programs need to speak with state and police departments and request an increase in their earmark. If that doesn’t work, they should try to find another source of funding. If the budget restrains the CSO Programs, they can always charge a fee if students ask to be picked up past 1 a.m.
Vans only operate from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and walking escorts only work from dusk to 1 a.m. daily, extending their availability to 2 a.m. on Thursdays. These limited hours of operation makes CSO resources unavailable to the students who would probably need them the most.
Many students are still on campus well past midnight, but once 1 a.m. rolls around they must choose between risking their safety or cutting their work short. When students have urgent deadlines or they are strapped for cash, the anxiety of walking home alone at night might be well worth the risk of staying on campus late.
But the lack of late-night service affects some more than others. For students with disabilities whose only options after 11 p.m. are ride-sharing services or friends with cars, sacrificing productivity to go home might seem like the obvious choice.
The CSO Programs have experimented with pushing their hours back later in the past, but Ellis said that officials believed the number of people who used the services past current hours of operation was not worth the extra cost.
But the true cost is probably not so drastic. On an average night, there are four CSO officers working for the escort service. Having just one or two officers stay past 1 a.m. for an additional three hours would close an important security oversight. Additionally, with a little more advertising, students would be more likely to utilize the extended hours.
Either way, a couple of officers walking or driving students home effectively improves students’ security, worth any impact the change would have on the current budget. At the very least, these extended hours should be provided during students’ busiest seasons, midterms and finals weeks.
Limited resources should not be an excuse for the university’s limited attention to students’ safety.