The Online Reflector

What started out as a fundraiser to gather students’ opinions about ongoing issues on the University of Indianapolis campus has turned into the Indianapolis Student Government Campus Environment Committee’s plan to hold an on-campus night walk.

This event will be held to inspire ideas from everyone on the UIndy campus to make it a safer place.

ISG previously set up a booth in the Schwitzer Student Center to encourage students to voice their complaints about safety on the UIndy campus. They received many complaints, including the safety of Hanna Avenue, Smith Mall, Campus Apartments and about the poor lighting on campus.

Current Campus Environment chairperson Elizabeth Jarrett emailed people to ask for suggestions on how to solve these issues. She recorded advice from Executive Director of Student Services Dan Stoker, who had previously conducted night walks while attending college.

“When I was an undergrad, we regularly scheduled night walks at least annually as [part of] student government,” Stoker said. “We had all of those key campus constituents, both administrators and students.”

The main mission of the group will be to have people walk around the UIndy campus at night, pointing out different problems that they see, such as specific areas of poor lighting or problems concerning Campus Apartments.

“The idea for the night walk is to identify the problems on campus and brainstorm the possible solutions,” Jarrett said.

Solving the safety problems on campus will not only be beneficial for the students, but the faculty and staff as well.

Sophomore Resident Assistant Alysha Croy, who supervises a large number of women residing in Cravens Hall, thinks that the campus is very safe.

“But, I think there is a thin line between the safety surrounding the residence halls and off-campus,” Croy said.

Although the night walk is still in the preliminary stages, Jarrett is hopeful about the outcome.

“We want to address ideas and get the staff to realize that students aren’t falsifying their complaints,” Jarrett said.

Because planning for the night walk is still preliminary, an exact date for the event has not yet been set.

However, the Campus Environment Committee will make sure that the night walk takes place before the semester concludes.

“We’re dealing with the dirty details now, getting the planning ready, like the invitations,” Jarrett said. “We know how we want to do it.”

Jarrett said that all members of the campus will be invited to the event. This includes physical plant members, police officers and faculty, as well as students residing in Campus Apartments, students in RSOs and other students.

“Anybody is welcome to attend the night walk in order to be able to give their input and be part of the conversation, but we’re going after specific individuals or groups in order to be able to make sure that we have voices that are present and included,” Stoker said.

Although Croy believes that the UIndy campus is very safe for the residents she oversees, she is excited about the night walk.

“It’s a good idea,” she said. “I’m not sure how they’ll [ISG] be able to measure something being more or less unsafe, but it’s definitely a start.”

Stoker is looking to the future, and hoping to have regularly scheduled night walks.

“It [night walks] might happen at different times during the year. It’s very different at nine o’ clock at night, with daylight saving time in April, than it is in December or January when it’s darker earlier,” Stoker said. “You have to change up the time of year that you offer it in order to really get that experience.”

Stoker believes that the night walk is a perfect demonstration of how the University of Indianapolis takes into consideration the opinions of its students.

“I think that’s where we [administrators] need to open up our eyes. And we’ve got to experience it from the student standpoint,” Stoker said. “It’s not going to help with us walking around in the daytime. It’s our opportunity to not talk but to listen.”