Speak SC meeting focuses on student safety

The Speak SC meeting at Ronald Tutor Campus Center on Tuesday night emphasized the role of students in maintaining a secure campus. Panelists from the Dept. of Public Safety and USC Transportation answered questions at the town hall-style meeting and encouraged a greater concern for safety at USC.

 

DPS Deputy Chief David Carlisle told those in attendance that campus safety is a shared responsibility.

“The most important key to your safety is the same as it would be anywhere … smart decision making,” Carlisle said.

Student compliance is crucial for the success of DPS’s latest initiative, the USC Trojan Mobile Safety App, powered by LiveSafe Inc. LiveSafe is a smartphone app designed to improve incident reporting. Once installed on a student’s phone, LiveSafe functions in a similar way to blue light emergency systems around campus. By pressing a button, DPS can locate a student via GPS and respond without the student having to make a phone call.

Panelists paused the presentation so that attendees could download the app to their smartphone. Volunteers handed out fliers at the doorway and encouraged students to spread the word.

DPS has been promoting LiveSafe heavily on campus this week in order to meet President C.L. Max Nikias’ goal of 100 percent student participation in the program. As of Monday night, however, there have been only 1,200 downloads on both the University Park and Health Sciences campuses.

“It’s still a drop in the bucket,” Carlisle said.

DPS’s emphasis on safety segued into USC Transportation Director Tony Mazza’s presentation on the Campus Cruiser program.

“Part of safety at ’SC is a safe ride program,” Mazza said.

Mazza reported that Campus Cruiser can answer up to 1,400 calls per night on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, far exceeding comparable programs at universities such as the University of California, Berkeley.

USC Transportation is considering partnering with the San Francisco-based ridesharing service Uber to improve the program. Mazza, however, said he prefers a “closed system,” where cars are university-owned and students are the drivers.

“There’s camaraderie when a student gets in a car with another student in a car that’s owned by the university,” Mazza said.

Mazza said, though, that future collaboration with an Uber-like service is not out of the question.

Collaboration was also an important theme when discussing bike safety. Numerous thefts and collisions have led USC to considering additional bike lanes on Jefferson Boulevard and more secure bike parking.

DPS stressed the role students have in promoting transportation safety by complying with the rules regarding bike lanes and no-walk zones.

“We can only be so effective when it comes to enforcing bike policy. It’s not like we’re going to chase down a student and handcuff them,” DPS Chief John Thomas said.