Rodrigues 1

Jessica Rodrigues
April 6, 2011
English 102
Professor Williams

The Goal of Safety Escorts at BSU

The goal of the Safety Escort Service is a free way to provide students of all ages, with or

without cars, transportation everyday of the week from 7pm to 3am. In the beginning of the

school year, a Bridgewater State University student was seriously injured after a motor vehicle

struck her at 6pm while walking across the street. It is the goal of BSU to keep their students

safe in school and safety makes achieving that objective easier. This objective is met because

they are able to provide such a secure and useful service to their students.

-Expect the Unexpected -

Many students depend on the safety van to get them from Point A to Point B during

different days of the week and various weather climates. I have witnessed Safety being elbow

to elbow, with students and their tightly sealed water bottles in hand, and smelt students who

have reeked of marijuana on Thursday nights. There is a wide range of diversity among the

students who utilize the escort program; some with leg injuries, some who have smelled really

bad, and some who were blatantly rude to the drivers because they were showing off in front

of their friends. Many students riding on safety talk in hushed tones about private matters

about who they just got back from seeing, where they are going to party next and how they are

going to get their friend who is too intoxicated to walk on their own into their residence hall.

One night while I was observing in a Safety van the driver went to Tower Lot to pick up

students, one in particular who boarded was a tall, thin, male carry something wrapped in
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aluminum foil and smelled quite terribly. As he boarded he stated his destination of Shae/Durg

and the ride over was silent, you couldn’t even hear someone breathe. After two drop-offs at

Pope and Scott Hall the driver’s friend, who rode in the passenger’s seat, mumbled “thank god”

and let out a deep breath. Both of them laughed it off innocently and the driver jokingly asked if

he can “kick people off for smelling”. The driver also mentioned how he does not enjoy when

women wear too much perfume as the smell lingers in the van and becomes unbearable.

During my observations I befriended a few of the drivers who were open and welcoming

of my purpose in sitting along for the ride. This allowed me the chance to talk with them and

hear of experiences on safety as a driver from a different view point. Many of the drivers listen

to the radio or their own iPod because sometimes the sound of a person’s voice bothers them

as well as their personal conversations. Many times students will request to put on a certain

music station and if the driver is nice enough they will, but most often since the driver is stuck

driving between the hours of 7pm and 3am with a quick bathroom or 20 minute break in

between, they like to listen music of their personal likings.

-Through the Eyes of A Driver-

Recently I had the opportunity to speak with a safety dispatcher at the location of the

BSU Police Department. Isabel, an active BSU student, was very welcoming to the idea of my

interviewing her and observing safety. I first began with asking her how long she has been with

the Safety Escort Program and found out that she has been working with safety for 7 semesters

and received the job as an owed favor from a Lieutenant to her older sister after her wallet was

lost and never found. Initially, Isabel began employment at Parking Services but when Safety

needed her help her temporary switch transformed into a permanent position. She then
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informed me that she enjoys working as a dispatcher when people are kind in requesting safety

and as a driver when other students compliment her on doing a great job because it makes her

feel like her role in Safety is important and that she matters. However, some days she feels as if

her place working for Safety goes unappreciated when students call and hang up, call

repeatedly because they are impatient, and call to complain that “safety is taking too long”. She

also noted that such occurrences are most common on the busiest nights of the week which

she explained were Thursday, Fridays and Sundays due to off campus parties, students coming

from bars, and the need to get to and from the Tower Parking Lot. She states that on busy

nights she can “barely put down the phone for a second before it rings again, and it could go on

for more than a minute”. Isabel, then took me into the responsibilities needed to ensure that

safety is running smoothly which includes answering the escort’s phone line, completing the

safety escort dispatching log and the daily ridership counts. I asked Isabel about her views

regarding Safety’s hours of operation and its usage by students. She stated “It really bothers me

when I see people using the escort service out of laziness”, because she understands how busy

they are and feels that in most cases if people were to walk to their destination they may

already be there if they were not waiting for a van to pick them. She also believes the proper

way to use the assistance of the safety van is when students are carrying boxes or bags, are

physically injured, or the weather conditions inhibits the students ability to get around campus

safely. I asked Isabel to take me through a memorable experience on a night she was working,

she began to explain an instance where a student once seated himself in the passenger’s seat,

which she feels is always uncomfortable for her, started talking to her as if they had been long
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time friends and in addition, went as far as asking her for her cell phone number to go out

sometime.

John, one of the few certified drivers of the large bus, has been with the Safety Escort

service for two semesters. I got to know that he is a geography major which heightened my

curiosity as to why, out of all the job opportunities on campus, he chose to drive safety. I was

surprised at his response of “I’ve always wanted to work for safety, since I was a freshman, I

just thought it was the coolest job ever, plus I’m a night person so the hours are really easy for

me”. As John was driving to pick up at the location of East hall, my question pertaining to what

he thinks about safety was temporarily interrupted. He slowed down and jerked the steering

wheel to the left to avoid the “Yield for pedestrians” sign in the middle of the road, he said “I

hate those things, they are so annoying because they always move out of place when people hit

them, like look right there” and he pointed to yet another sign, which was dented and hanging

lopsided. I thought it was funny because those signs are not something the smaller passenger

van drivers have to worry about. Reverting back to my question, John said he feels that the

Safety Escort at BSU is important in keeping students safe “especially girls because they should

not have to walk alone at night, it is not safe for anyone to walk in the dark by themselves”. He

added that one night in particular, to this day, stands out to him because a sober, female

passenger chatted him up and said “you’re the bestest safety driver ever!” and asked him for

his phone number. I asked him what he would do in the event that a drunk student boarded

safety and he said it is part of his job to radio dispatch and ask for a health and safety check

using a code word because even thought the student is not in a dorm or building, they are

required to follow school policies regarding suspicious behavior. He also said that he would not
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want to have to clean up puke even though it is easier on the bus which has a water hose for

that particular purpose. As we were driving back to the west side of campus and passing Burrill

Ave, I was curious to know why the BSU shuttles were permitted to drive down that road but

Safety were not. He answered my question, the same question many passengers of safety have,

with “at night when safety runs, there were a lot of people running everywhere, and they used

to dodge in front of Safety vans randomly, from what other Safety Escort drivers have told me”.

There were also complaints made by residents of Bridgewater and it becomes a liability issue

since it is a hot spot on Thursday nights and many students stumble.

As we were driving by the set of lights on Summer Street I noticed that John turned on

his hazard lights when another Safety van drove by, even though we were not stopping for a

pick up. Before I could ask him why he did that, he told me “turning on our lights is our way of

saying ‘Hi’ to each other since its dark and we can’t see when the other person waves”.

-Students’ Safety Always Comes First-

I recently interviewed a female friend whose view on safety is that “They take you

everywhere and back”. She told me she boarded safety around 2:50am after a night out and

“everyone was intoxicated. Safety was so packed we had to lap up, because no other van

wanted to come”. Normally safety is prohibited from driving if it has reached capacity because

it is a safety concern if passengers are not able to buckle-up if they choose. However, since it
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was close to 3am the other vans were headed back to park for the night and end their shift. She

enjoys using safety because she knows she will get home safely no matter how long it takes, it

beats walking by herself, disoriented, and in the dark of the night.

-Headed Home-

After several rides using the BSU Safety Escort and interviews with students and

employees it can be assumed that many students find it beneficial. During the nighttime,

popular weekdays and poor weather conditions the BSU Safety Escort achieves its goal in

providing students with a safe and free way of traveling across campus. When students need a

ride, who are they going to call?...Safety!

It seems to me that you are working on an overall structure for the whole project here. Many

of the sections, including the conclusion needs more details, but I know you have that

information from your second essay. I think this organization works for the final project, now

you just need to do some rewriting.

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Annotated Bibliography
“Bridgewater State University Safety Escort Service.” Bridgew.edu. Bridgewater State University,
10 October 2010. Web 6 April 2011.
This source is very reliable in stating how the free transportation works, who benefits, and what
the rules and guidelines are. This source is the source I will compare and contrast my other
sources with. This fits into my research because there is no other kind of source that knows
more about this specific schools safety escort service than the school itself.

“Eagle Transportation, Boston College Police Department”. www.bc.edu. Boston College. March
2011. Web 6 April 2011.
This source is very reliable in stating how the free transportation works, who benefits, and what
the rules and guidelines are. I will use this source to compare to and contrast with my first
source. This fits into my research because there is no other kind of source that knows more
about this specific schools safety escort service than the school website itself.

“Getting There...From Here, Your School. Traveling on the Consortium Shuttle”. Worcester:
Colleges of Worcester Consortium, 2010. Web. 6 Apr. 2011.
This source is very reliable in stating how the free transportation works, who benefits, and what
the rules and guidelines are. I will use this source to compare to and contrast with my first
source. This fits into my research because there is no other kind of source that knows more
about this specific schools safety escort service than the school website itself.

“Gateway Shuttle.”www.wpi.edu. Worcester Polytechnic Institute. 1995-2011. Web 6 April

2011.
This source is very reliable in stating how the free transportation works, who benefits, and what
the rules and guidelines are. I will use this source to compare to and contrast with my first
source. This fits into my research because there is no other kind of source that knows more
about this specific schools safety escort service than the school website itself.

“Parking Services”. www.fitchburgstate.edu. Fitchburg State University. 2000-2011. Web 6 April

2011.
This source is very reliable in stating how the free transportation works, who benefits, and what
the rules and guidelines are. I will use this source to compare to and contrast with my first
source. This fits into my research because there is no other kind of source that knows more
about this specific schools safety escort service than the school website itself.

“Safety Escort Service.” www.framingham.edu. Framingham State University. 2011. Web 6

April 2011.
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This source is very reliable in stating how the free transportation works, who benefits, and what
the rules and guidelines are. I will use this source to compare to and contrast with my first
source. This fits into my research because there is no other kind of source that knows more
about this specific schools safety escort service than the school website itself.

“Shuttle Services.”www.curry.edu. Curry College. 2011. Web 6 April 2011.

This source is very reliable in stating how the free transportation works, who benefits, and what
the rules and guidelines are. I will use this source to compare to and contrast with my first
source. This fits into my research because there is no other kind of source that knows more
about this specific schools safety escort service than the school website itself.

“Shuttle Services.”www.salemstate.edu. Salem State University. 2011. Web 6 April 2011.

This source is very reliable in stating how the free transportation works, who benefits, and what
the rules and guidelines are. I will use this source to compare to and contrast with my first
source. This fits into my research because there is no other kind of source that knows more
about this specific schools safety escort service than the school website itself.

“Shuttle & Escorts.” www.wsc.ma.edu. Westfield State University. 2011. Web 6 April 2011.
This source is very reliable in stating how the free transportation works, who benefits, and what
the rules and guidelines are. I will use this source to compare to and contrast with my first
source. This fits into my research because there is no other kind of source that knows more
about this specific schools safety escort service than the school website itself.

All your sources are cited properly in MLA. The annotations, although basic do give some

sense of the context and relevance. If you find that comparing Saftey with that at local

schools is useful in your project than you should. If not then don’t.