It’s 9:30 p.m. at Capen library on the University at Buffalo’s North Campus. Mike Hicks, a sophomore accounting major, is sitting at the Anti-Rape Task Force (ARTF) table outside the library’s exit, waiting for a student to request a safety walk. Hicks is working off the community service hours he accumulated after punching and breaking the glass of the shuttle schedule at a bus stop on campus. Tonight, he hasn’t been terribly busy—the only walk he’s gone on so far was with a friend. It might be all the same to Hicks, though, who seems uninterested in his job. “I don’t like authority,” he says.
Some students question how the ARTF—a group staffed mainly by students forced to work there—can remain effective.
But ask Mahezbin Shaikh, an exercise science graduate student who came to Buffalo from India this semester, and she’ll give you a different answer. She uses the vans to come home from class every night. “You always love it when people drive you to your home, especially in this cold weather.” She was one of a half dozen passengers taking the van home on a frigid Friday night.
Two female UB students started ARTF as a strictly volunteer-based organization in the 1970s. It started as a simple walk service for female students, provided by women. Today, with few volunteers, the organization is staffed primarily by students working off community service hours. The Student Wide Judiciary has plenty of student workers available, but many students question whether they help or hurt the perception of the organization.
Though ARTF has some volunteers, and a limited number of stipend positions for supervisors and van drivers, student support is notably low, according to SBI Health Education Director Jane Fischer. “People do not feel that they have enough time available. Maybe our society has just become apathetic.”
This lack of volunteers puts community service workers at the forefront of the organization’s walk station staff. Students go through a mandatory training session before they begin and, according to Fischer, are only allowed to participate if their offenses are for non-violent behavior.
The ARTF is made up of an escort van and escort walk stations that are available on both campuses. The walk stations, where a student can be walked by a student chaperone to their car or home, depart from Capen library and the Health Sciences library from Sunday to Thursday. For those traveling a longer distance, the van service operates on South Campus every night. The services are in effect from 8 p.m. to midnight. The vans run anywhere within a mile-and-a-half radius from South Campus, including Kensington Village and Campus Manor. The ARTF also offers workshops on date and acquaintance rape, gender differences, and the empowerment and objectification of women.
The South Campus van service is far more popular than the walk stations. On a recent Friday night, one van carried juniors Renee Galban a history major, Lisett Planche a chemistry major, and Elizabeth Gonzalez an early childhood education major. The students are roommates on Lisbon Avenue, and regularly utilize the service to get back from class at night. They ride in the van not so much because they are afraid, but because they want to stay cautious. “It’s not bad [walking home] until you hear about someone getting mugged,” Galban says.
Jason Alonzo, a van driver for ARTF, says that although he gets a meager monthly stipend for his work, he’d do it anyway. “Helping people out, making sure they’re safe, with all the crazy stuff that’s been going on recently,” Alonzo says, is his primary motivation.
The women who responded all said that though they often used the van service, they did not utilize the organization’s safety walks.
On campus walk stations are the only ARTF service that accepts volunteers, Fischer says. The shuttle operates with paid staff and volunteers only.
On campus walk stations, seem to be considered more low-key, and are considerably under-utilized. Krista Trivieri, a first year epidemiology graduate student, says she has never used the safety walk. “I don’t go to the library on South Campus, I study in the classrooms and leave with friends.” Trivieri would volunteer, she says, but due to her size, “I don’t know how much help I would really be.”
Christina King, a senior nursing major, has been on safety walks before. She explains a typical student response to volunteering—lack of free time. “I would like to help out, but I have a very busy schedule and don’t think I could fit those hours into it.”
Armando Diez, a senior psychology major, has volunteered in safety walks before through the University Police Department, not the ARTF. Though he doesn’t utilize the service personally, he says he would welcome the idea of volunteering for the ARTF. “I would do it for friends, so it is not a stretch to do it for anyone else.”
Not everyone is eligible to work off their community service hours with the ARTF. Students can choose where they would like to perform their hours, but sites can turn people away if they do not think they are the right person for that service.
“Judicial Affairs screens students and only sends them if appropriate…therefore, we would know whether or not the offense is non-violent,” Fischer says. “Neither they nor we depend on what the student says—it’s on their disciplinary form.”
There is a discrepancy on this point, says Hicks. “The ARTF did ask me what I was here for, and I told them the truth. They had no problem with letting a violent person help them out.”
Todd Kamenash, assistant director of Judicial Affairs, says it’s not impossible that a student with behavioral problems or violent tendencies could slip by. “Generally, students who commit acts of violence are not given community service as a sanction, they may have mandated counseling and/or anger management counseling,” says Kamenash. However, the student is responsible for being honest about their offense. “If a student chooses a site like the ARTF, the community service facilitator will ask them if they committed an act of violence that led to the sanction. The student is also told that the ARTF may screen students and will likely ask them the same thing.”
A training session begins every student’s work experience with ARTF. Everyone who works for the ARTF must go through a mandatory two-hour training session. At this training, students learn information and statistics about rape and other safety issues. Though the group focuses on rape prevention, the staff also learns about other types of violent crimes.
Still, according to one anonymous ARTF safety walker, “They gave background information on rape… not any walking techniques or self defense.” If he had this training, he felt, it would make him feel more comfortable when walking students. “If I was in that situation, I wouldn’t know what to do.”
Tim Higgins, a junior history major, is serving the ARTF for the second time. He agrees that he didn’t feel very well prepared. When asked what he would do if a situation arose, he responded “I would hit them with my Maglite.”
It seemed that the safety walkers on duty viewed their positions to be characteristic of vigilante justice. ARTF, however, is a chaperone program that relies on strength in numbers rather than physical violence.
Sasha McGarvey, assistant director of SBI Health Education, says volunteer numbers fluctuate. “I would say [there are] about five consistent for walk stations, more for vans.” Fischer noted that the lack of help and support from the student body is one of the reasons why they only offer walks five days a week.
To add to the difficulty of limited hours, there is always a chance that the walks will not be offered if volunteers and students required to do community service fail to show up. While the ARTF walkers have to fill their required hours from judicial affairs in the selected time period, there is no punishment for absence. “On the night of the Super Bowl, we didn’t have it because no one showed up,” Fischer says.
Though there will always be a stream of students assigned to community service, the program cannot rely on those people alone. Some feel that the current students are not given the proper materials and preparation needed to allow them perform their jobs at a comfortable level. This increase in training cannot be done by the ARTF alone, and it is crucial that students volunteer and get involved in a valuable service that helps improve campus safety.
Hicks admits that if he did not have to do it for community service, he would not volunteer. “I will never ever volunteer for anti-rape unless there is cash money,” he says.
Students are aware of the ARTF, though, and even if they do not use it, they seem to understand the importance of a service that helps provide campus safety. Since the ARTF does not have the funding to hire a full-time staff, they depend on student involvement. Fischer adds that student organizations, fraternities, sororities, and athletic teams would all be welcome volunteers. Plus, she adds, it might even be fun.
“We believe that this service can exist on volunteers. We encourage people to give back to their college community,” says Fischer.
