Night Walk Identifies 'Unsafe' Areas of Campus

Last Thursday, George Mason’s Student Government assessed the safety of the campus with its annual programs Campus Safety Day and Night Walk.

During the day, Student Government distributed key tags with phone numbers for Student Assault Services and Campus Police as well as significant pieces of information regarding what students can do in emergency situations.

Night Walk occurs at the end of Campus Safety Day. It brings together members of Student Government with administrators from campus organizations like Dining Services, Campus Facilities, and Sexual Assault Services.

“Determining administrators was a delicate process,” said Speaker of the Student Senate Mhehvish Khan. “We first looked into departments that have a direct impact of Mason security like the police department and other that would be able to fix the problem like facilities services.”

“We’ve been doing night walks for a while,” explained Khan as she walked through campus. “It got very popular after there were [alleged] attacks behind Fenwick Library.”

Before embarking on the Night Walk, Student Government members and Mason administrators were divided into different groups to cover different areas of campus. The groups were able to cover the majority of campus in about an hour.

Participants documented any and all hazards they encountered while on their section of the Night Walk. They wrote down the exact locations of issues and took photographs of the problems.

“I think it is a great idea because our campus is expanding,” said Habib Eko, a neuroscience major. “More people on campus means more strangers, and more construction means more hazards.”

In addition to writing down issues like broken lights, hazardous sidewalks and poorly lit sections of campus, groups tested the blue emergency call boxes to see if they were operating properly. University Police was notified that blue box testing was taking place, so no false alarms would go off.

One group included Khan, President of Facilities Tom Calhoun, and two other members of Student Government. They walked past the Center for the Arts and throughout parking lots J and K. The group was surprised to find that no lights in either parking lot were broken.

“I was very pleased to see that Lot K and J were well lit and that all of the lights were working,” said Khan.

Though this part of campus is one of the largest and usually darkest places, very few changes will need to be made. The group identified only a few tripping hazards like loose concrete and a some broken bricks.

Other groups identified specific areas of concern like the need for pedestrian signs at the crosswalk near the Aquatic Center. Issues like these and others like broken lights and potentially dangerous areas that don’t receive a lot of police patrol were noted. The appropriate Mason organization will be notified of the concerns.

After Night Walk is when the real work begins. A report of the findings, including photographs, is compiled through the committee that organized Night Walk. Student Government will work with the respective university administrators to help improve safety in the areas deemed “unsafe.”

“Over in facilities, Tom Calhoun, the Vice President of Facilities -- who also attended Night Walk -- takes a look at it and then makes changes as best he can,” said Universities Committee Chair Neha Gulati. Other administrators will also review the information and add input if necessary.

Specifically, the information from Night Walk will be broken down into categories and organized. Then it is sent over to particular organizations such as facilities, environmental health and safety, parking services, and the police department.

“This year after the report is sent over, I – along with one or two other Student Government members -- will be meeting with [Calhoun] to discuss the details of it and to make the campus safer for students,” said Gulati.

Mason administrators took a survey before and after Night Walk to poll their opinion about the overall safety of the campus. These surveys will also be included in the final report.