NDSP and Student Government make changes to campus safety program

In order to reduce wait times this year, Notre Dame Security Police (NDSP) and Student Government instituted major changes to the campus safety shuttle program. They rebranded the service as SafeBouND to highlight its intended mission of student safety and replaced golf cart rides with walking escorts from Thursday to Saturday each week.

Prior to the change, the service was known as O’SNAP and provided free golf cart or van rides seven days a week from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. The new service, SafeBouND, replaces golf cart rides with a walking escort Thursday-Saturday from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. From Sunday to Wednesday, SafeBouND will offers golf cart or van rides from 9 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Both rides and walks can be requested between any two points on campus and are available to Notre Dame students as well as Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross students while they are on Notre Dame’s campus.

According to a Rover interview with Rebecca Blais, Student Body Vice President, NDSP and Student Government made the changes primarily because students were facing “long wait times due to the abuse of the system [and because of] maltreatment of student employees by drunk passengers.” Furthermore, according to NDSP Sergeant Tracy Skibins during a Student Senate meeting, weekend wait times reached up to 88 minutes due to an enormous number of rides requested on weekends. O’SNAP saw vastly more ride requests on weekends compared to weekdays and was unable to keep up with requests with its limited staff and resources. By substituting walking escorts for rides and emphasising the service’s focus on safety, Blais says, “We think SafebouND will lower asks and wait times by targeting the students who feel unsafe, not students who wanted a free ride.”

Additionally, NDSP hopes that the changes will increase safety for both the person requesting a ride or walk and reduce uncomfortable situations for the student employee. According to Sergeant Tracy’s presentation to the Student Senate, O’SNAP had many problems, including intoxicated passengers falling from the golf carts. By replacing rides with walks, the service can avoid these situations. In addition, the changes will also hopefully decrease the number of difficult situations for student employees such as handling a larger group of intoxicated students, as frequently happened with O’SNAP.

Other changes include a shortening of SafeBouND’s weekday hours and a three-person limit in group size. Weekday service will end at 1:30 a.m, which aligns more closely with periods of higher use.

NDSP and Student Government will continue to explore possible improvements to SafeBouND in order to accomplish its goal of making sure students can travel around campus safely. According to Blais, Student Government is “currently working on incorporating bikes or golf carts to drop [SafeBouND] walkers off on the weekends” in order to further cut wait times.“

Walking escorts are provided by pairs of NDSP student employees who are stationed at central locations around campus. Student employees are trained by NDSP, wear neon SafeBouND vests, and carry NDSP identification. If any student is interested in becoming a student employee for SafeBound, please contact NDSP Sergeant Tracy Skibins at tboenne@nd.edu.  

During the hours SafeBouND is in operation, 9 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Sunday-Wednesday and 9 p.m Thursday-Saturday, students can request a free pickup either using the SafeBouND mobile app or by calling NDSP at (574) 631-5555. Outside of these hours, students can request an escort from a NDSP officer by calling the same number.