UA administrators, ASUA fund Escort Service with $50,000

Robert H. Becker/Arizona Summer Wildcat New Escort Service Director Brian Melvin holds the identification badges of all the service's employees. After receiving an increase in funding, the service now can offer more campus coverage, heightened safety and better pay.

After years of trying everything imaginable to raise money for an ASUA campus safety program in financial need, ASUA asked for an early Christmas gift from UA administrators this summer. And the administration answered.

UA administrators gave the Associated Students $50,000 to fund Escort Service this year, and every year in the future. Last year the service worked with a $32,000 budget, of which the Marshall Foundation donated $2,500, Parking and Transportation Services gave $5,000 and the rest came from ASUA. The money was spent before the end of the year.

Escort Service has never had enough money to be run right, Associated Students President Gilbert Davidson said.

And although those days are not completely over, every amount of money is a help, said Escort Service Director Brian Melvin, a psychology senior.

"With this money we want to provide more general safety around campus," Melvin said.

The walking escorts, which started last year, will be targeted for the biggest expansion, he said. The walking escorts walk students to campus destinations that are short distances rather than use the Escort Service's two golf carts or van. He said they a lso function to improve campus safety because they are visible when they walk around campus.

"We want to give the workers better pay so more people will work and we can put more people on the walking escort," Melvin said.

Last year about 30 students volunteered their time from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday nights and received a block stipend of $350 to $400 a semester, he said. Next year he wants to be able to pay the workers minimum wage.

Melvin said he also wants to decrease the pick-up response time, of five to 10 minutes, to less than five minutes. He said this was not possible last year because they only had four to eight volunteers to handle an average of 90 calls a night.

The number of students who use Escort Service has increased annually by more than 100 percent in the past three years, said the previous director, Tim Walker. But this is the first year its funding has also significantly increased, he said.

Walker said for the past three years while he was director he tried unsuccessfully to get private sponsors to donate money or vehicles.

The people who will benefit most from the money will be the Escort Service volunteers and women who live in residence halls and sorority houses, because they are the biggest users of the service, Davidson said.

"And it's better for campus safety," he added.

In addition to the $50,000, the administration also gave the program $5,000 of a $25,000 federally subsidized grant it received for programs like Escort Service. The other $20,000 went toward the daytime service for disabled students, which is run by Park ing and Transportation.

"They (administrators) are trying to be very supportive of some of the things we want to do," Davidson said.

Every year ASUA officers have to struggle with how much money they can allocate to the service, while still providing adequate funds to the other areas of ASUA, he said.

The money for Escort Service also benefits the other programs and services in ASUA because the money ASUA would have allocated to the service can now go to other areas, Davidson said. He said he must submit ASUA's budget, which consists of the budget for each area of ASUA, for approval July 1.

Melvin said he will still try to receive money from ASUA and the Marshall Foundation to fund the service.