By
Jessica Lee
Editor's Note: Each day this week, Wildcat Perspectives columnists will be examining a different UA program or service that is sponsored by ASUA. Jessica Lee's column is the second of five installments.
When that eerie feeling takes over as you walk home from the library, who are you gonna call?
The Escort Service.
Recently, pressure has been placed on the Escort Service to extend its hours to serve students on the weekends.
After spending time riding around with those who run the program, it seems ridiculous to place the responsibility of driving "partied-out" students home on the shoulders of ASUA.
In order to explore the program, I decided to do what every other columnist must do once in his or her career - go undercover. So, last Thursday, my accomplice and I disguised ourselves as students needing a ride across campus and called 621-SAFE.
As soon as they took my information, I hit start on my stopwatch. The white Escort Service van rolled up to the back of Yavapai Hall in exactly five minutes, 30 seconds. Not bad, since the average pick-up for the month of March was five minutes, 22 seconds. My plan was to be dropped off at Babcock Inn, so I could get some quality time observing the driver and the entire routine.
Anonymous male driver number one has worked as a driver for two years and was very friendly. Through the walkie-talkie communication with the dudes at the main headquarters, I slyly eased an important question into the regular conversation.
"So," I asked him, "do you ever romp around Old Main in the golf carts?"
To my disappointment, no one to his knowledge had gone off-road with the carts. But, he confessed, "We do play campus golf-cart tag."
After my incognito adventure, I decided that on Sunday night I would inform the Escort Service of my columnist scheme and hitch a ride with one of its quality drivers. Bryan Babich, a political science senior, was the lucky driver I would get to entertain with questions and incessant scribbling in my notebook.
Babich, who has been working around ASUA for almost four years, confesses that besides the UA Legal Service Program, the Escort Service is the most utilized program on campus. Last semester alone, the service provided rides for 10,870 students - all in only four vehicles.
The program works within a $50,000 budget - barely enough money to pay the 13 employees $5.25 per hour, manage repairs and fuel up the gas-guzzling vans. The golf carts are powered by electricity - which scored big points with me.
My hour ride with Babich took me from central campus to the very outskirts of the service's boundaries. I wanted to get to the heart of the main argument about the Escort Service - its non-operation on the weekends.
UA Senator Jered Mansell strongly supports extending the operation of the service to seven days a week and until 2 or 3 a.m. in order to provide a safe ride anytime for anyone. The dispute centers on if doing so would turn the program into a drunken shuttle on Friday and Saturday nights.
Babich got really fired up when I brought up the subject. Currently, escort rules do not allow the drivers to pick up anyone who is intoxicated.
Although the partying individual clearly need a safe ride home, Babich stresses that the Escort Service "isn't a taxi service that should be used for a ride to the bars or clubs. Its purpose is not social, but academic."
I had to agree. The program is simply not designed to handle the carrying capacity of partying students. Not only in discipline, but in funding.
But, I wanted to know more. So, I asked, "Bryan, what is the most memorable story you have being a driver?"
After chuckling to himself, he recanted the time when he was driving a van full of students during Fall Rush 2000 when a completely naked guy ran out and down the road in front of him. No training or experience could have prepared him on what to do.
And although Babich heard that a long time ago drivers used to charge students $15 to play golf-cart polo, the Escort Service is completely professional and efficient.
Yet, they could use a bit more funding to fix that sliding van door that never shuts the first time.
