After a night of drinking that spanned into Sunday morning, three freshman women found themselves far from their uphill dorm this past weekend.
Only two days after a graduate student was robbed at knifepoint at the intersection of Packard Avenue and Powderhouse Boulevard, one of the students called for a campus safety escort, a service provided by the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD). She was under the impression that the service could be utilized in such situations.
But when a squad car arrived to pick her and her friends up, the officer gave the students an uncomfortable "lecture" about underage drinking before taking them uphill, the student said.
"The impression that I got obviously was that if you're going to drink, don't use the escort service," the student who called TUPD said. The officer "made me feel like it was better if the three of us girls just walked back up Packard Ave. just by ourselves at four in the morning ... just after [Friday's] incident occurred."
In response to encounters like this one, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate passed a resolution on Sunday recommending that TUPD make its escort service more accessible to students, advertise it better and expand its scope. The resolution focused in particular on students calling for help from off campus.
Junior and TCU President Neil DiBiase, who submitted the resolution, said it was a response to many complaints he has heard about the escort service and public safety in general during his time at Tufts. He also mentioned recent shootings on other college campuses as an impetus.
"We've been hearing ... recurring student concerns about public safety, specifically from off-campus students," said DiBiase, a junior. "I'd been getting frustrated with the situation of safety for students who particularly live off campus but [also] for all students in general."
DiBiase said action must be taken by the university, TUPD and the surrounding communities to ensure that further serious incidents do not occur.
"I don't think we do the best job providing public safety to our students and to our entire community," DiBiase said. He explained that Senator Matt Shapanka, a junior, has been working on public safety issues for several years but has seen very few improvements.
"Even if you are party-hopping you should be allowed to use the escort service," DiBiase said during the Senate's meeting on Sunday. "You should call an escort if you've been drinking, as far as I'm concerned."
The Senate's resolution, "A Resolution Calling for the Enhancement of Public Safety," passed unanimously with 23 votes and no abstentions. The resolution is non-binding legislation that serves to provide recommendations to TUPD and the university. Tufts officials can implement it or ignore it in any way they see fit.
The legislation also called for other improvements to public safety, including improved lighting in communities surrounding the Medford campus and possible additions to the blue safety light phone system.
DiBiase called TUPD early Saturday morning for an escort car to transport his female friend from his off-campus house to hers. TUPD denied the request, saying that "they do not give escorts between two off-campus residences," according to DiBiase. Both houses involved were located within a few blocks of the sites of two separate assaults that have occurred on the edges of campus this year.
Both this incident and the incident with the freshman women occurred fewer than 48 hours after TUPD sent a public-safety alert to the Tufts community about the Friday morning armed robbery on the edge of campus. In that incident, a female student was assaulted by an armed robber, and one of the two male graduate students who came to her assistance was robbed at knifepoint.
DiBiase and the freshman student who called for an escort on Sunday morning both said knowledge of the robbery encouraged them to call for an escort. The female student requested anonymity due to the illegality of her underage drinking.
According to the TUPD Web site, "the Tufts University Police provides vehicle and walking escorts 24 hours a day, seven days a week between campus locations and to nearby rapid transit stations."
TUPD Sgt. Richard McConaghy told the Daily that the police force will send an on-duty officer to provide students transport "anytime, anywhere, anyplace."
"If you need a ride and you don't feel comfortable by yourself, we'll gladly do it," he said.
Most of the escort service calls are from female students leaving a library or on-campus dorm after late-night studying, according to McConaghy.
Director of Public and Environmental Safety John King said that for requests involving an off-campus point of origin or destination, the TUPD dispatcher or supervisor grants or denies escorts "on a case-by-case basis." TUPD is part of the Department of Public and Environmental Safety.
"Oftentimes, that decision has to be based on what else is going on during the shift at that time," he said. "It's difficult to draw a circle off-campus that ... is the service area."
McConaghy said that TUPD's escort-service policy can change depending on situations involving intoxication and off-campus parties.
"If it's off-campus, to go from one party to another party, it's not [always] feasible," he said. This can be due to a variety of reasons, McConaghy said, including the location of the off-campus house relative to campus. He added that cases with intoxicated students or community members requesting an escort between off-campus houses are uncommon.
"For off-campus parties ... students usually take themselves there and walk as a group," he said, "and most of the times it's earlier ... in the evening when they feel safe."
McConaghy added that he did not think fear of repercussions for underage drinking discouraged students from requesting an escort, although he could not know for sure why certain students did not call.
"We don't come across that [concern] too much," he said. "Usually students don't call if they're drunk ... because most of the times they're with friends."
The officer providing the escort can decide whether to call Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS) and file a report if he or she picks up an intoxicated student through the escort service.
"The primary objective is always safety, and certainly if a call is made to provide a safety escort and the officer finds that student to be intoxicated, that increases the concern for safety," King said. "The officer may have some concern as to whether the student can care for themselves."
McConaghy also said that an officer could give a noise violation to students hosting a party at a house in which a student is being picked up, although he noted that TUPD does not generally go in search of parties or try to break them up.
The freshman who called for an escort while intoxicated on Sunday morning said that being made uncomfortable under such circumstances or fearing repercussions after requesting an escort is contrary to the purpose of the service.
The student said the officer told her that "the escort service is about safety, but if you're going to use it, be smart about it. [The officer] was like, 'The number-one priority of my job is to uphold the law' ... She didn't get us in trouble; she just told us that she could get us in trouble. I think that even such an indication is wrong."
The resolution also calls for "the installation of additional blue safety light phones or their equivalents on" and around campus, including in the university's surrounding communities. In addition, it asks that TUPD increase its nighttime patrols around the perimeter of campus and that the university cooperate with the communities of Medford and Somerville in installing "adequate street lighting [in off-campus locations] where students frequently walk at night."
Senator Deborah Block, a senior and chair of the Senate's Special Projects Committee, spoke during the Senate meeting about her personal feelings on the issue. "As a female walking across campus and as someone whose house has been robbed, I know it's a horrible feeling ... when you know you're walking alone at night," she said.
DiBiase said that he plans to meet with university officials and other senators in the coming weeks to discuss the Senate's suggestions. He added that the Medford and Somerville communities would need to be persuaded to become involved.
"All the fault does not lie with Tufts," he said.
When a student calls TUPD's non-emergency telephone number to request an escort, the student must provide his or her name, telephone number, current location and destination. McConaghy said that a student identification number must be provided for each call, too, so that the request can be logged. Some students who have used the service, including freshman Cynthia Brunelle, said that they did not have to provide their ID numbers and reported positive experiences.
Brunelle said she used the escort service to transport her to a late-night a cappella audition during the first week of school in the fall and that she was satisfied with the service.
"Back then I was nervous and I didn't know campus yet," Brunelle said. "I didn't know where [the audition] was and I didn't want to walk alone at night. So I called the police, which felt weird, but they ended up being really nice."
She said that although TUPD told her that it would take 20 to 30 minutes for a police car to pick her up, it actually took fewer than five minutes.
"I would use it [again] if I was alone and I needed to get across campus late at night," Brunelle said.
McConaghy said that the police receive an increase in escort-service requests around midterms and finals and during bad weather. TUPD yesterday could not provide statistics regarding the service, but both McConaghy and King said there was a spike in escort requests during the incidents of sexual assault near Hillsides last spring.
King said that the Department of Public and Environmental Safety always seeks to improve its services.
"If students are dissatisfied or have questions about the service that we have provided or have not provided, I encourage them to contact [TUPD] Cpt. Mark Keith," King said. Keith reports to King.
"If there are concerns about the response of our staff, I think I would like to have as much information as I can have to follow up," King added.
To utilize the safety escort service, Tufts students and employees should call the TUPD non-emergency telephone number. On the Medford campus, that number is 617-627-3030. On the Boston campus, the number is 617-636-6610 and on the Grafton campus, the number is 508-839-5303.
