Keeping sidewalks safe

Members of the UW-La Crosse Student Association revived a former program last weekend as Safety on Our Sidewalks commenced its first night of operation on Valentine's Day.
Safety on Our Sidewalks, more commonly known as SOS, is a service offered to any UW-L student walking late at night who does not feel safe alone.
"For a university, campus safety here is probably above average… we don't have as much violence or concern as far as safety here on campus as some of the more metropolitan areas, but we still wanted to improve students' safety, especially walking home late at night," said Director of City Affairs Tyler Burkart.
Director Burkart worked directly with Senator Andy Schauer to rebuild the program from the ground up and improve safety on campus.
Burkart noted that the former installment of the program had trouble because of poor advertising and publicity, and its costliness.
Previously, the program held a number of paid employees; however the new program maintains very minimal costs to the campus. Apart from the start up expenses, the program will only need to fund the cell phone used during walks, which Burkart said is projected to cost in the single digits monthly.
Students interested in utilizing SOS can visit the Murphy Library Lobby or call the hotline at 785-8528 between the hours of 8 and 12, Sunday through Thursday nights.
"We do a pretty far radius as well so that a lot of students are able to use it. We'll always have two walkers that will go with someone individual," said Burkart.
"It's just reiterating the fact that we take safety as a pretty serious concern here at UW-L. Making sure that students feel safe," said Burkart.
For more information, visit the UW-L homepage or contact one of the SOS coordinators, Tyler Burkart, Andy Schauer, Kyle Dill, Andi Turtenwald, or Eric Schmidt.