A view of Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe. (Photo by Kyle Burton)
Safety Escort Services has added shuttle locations on the Tempe campus during game days in order to provide easier access to safety vans after a student experienced an issue with the services during a football game against UCLA in September.
Applied science junior Meghan Dingman found herself lost after leaving the game and was unable to find where to catch the shuttle back to West campus. Staff at the game were unable to help her.
During the bus ride to the game, students received information on what to do if they found themselves lost or in need of assistance, but this proved unhelpful when Dingman left the game after the first quarter.
“On the ride to the game they gave out these sheets of paper with three different phone numbers on them and a map of the general area,” she said. “One of the numbers was the escort service, one of them was the police and I don’t remember the other one.”
With her phone about to die, Dingman said she decided to ask people for assistance in returning to the shuttle in order to save her phone’s battery in case she needed it for an emergency.
“I went through and counted that I talked to nine different people to find out if someone could walk me over (to the shuttle) because it was dark and my phone battery was low, and I didn’t want anything bad to happen obviously,” she said.
Stadium officials told Dingman they could not walk her to the shuttle, because they had to remain at the stadium during the game.
“The people at the stadium said they couldn’t walk me, so I eventually called a safety escort line from someone else’s phone, and they said they wouldn’t come, because it was too busy,” Dingman said.
Eventually Dingman found a man who said he worked for stadium security and could walk her to the designated shuttle, but Dingman said she became uneasy during the walk.
“He was dressed wearing a vest and everything like ASU security but wasn’t acting like the other security people there,” she said. “He was friendly, making conversation, and then he was talking about how he had been accused of domestic violence on a couple of different instances. So I was kind of creeped out.”
After walking with the man, Dingman said she found out he did not know where the shuttles were.
“I eventually made it to the shuttle and back to campus,” Dingman said.
After suggestions by friends in Undergraduate Student Government, Dingman decided to bring the issue forward to ASU President Michael Crow during a recent town hall meeting with students. She said she is happy the issue is now being resolved.
West Campus Dean of Students Sharon Smith said in an email that the new game day shuttle locations will be outside of the G. Homer Durham Language and Literature building on the Tempe campus. That will be the designated spot for drop offs and pickups for game day for all points north of University Drive.
Other shuttle pick up and drop off locations on campus will remain the same, Smith said in an email.
“(Safety Escort Services) will continue to run normally for all points south of University on game day,” she said in an email.
James Rund, senior vice president for Education Outreach and Student Services, said in an email that game day information is continually being updated.
(Photo by Mackenzie McCreary)
“Game day information is being modified to better inform students about the full range of transportation options available to them, beyond the game day shuttle service; the Safety Escort Service remains a viable source of support for students wanting assistance in traversing the campus, and stadium security is routinely monitored regarding these and related concerns,” he said.
Tempe USG Vice President of Student Services Brian Salerno said the new shuttle locations are due to restrictions of service during game day.
“During game day pick up hours due to high traffic and police enforcement it was impossible for our vans to get there timely, so we have changed the boundaries slightly for game day,” he said.
The issue had been part of a conversation and the town hall discussion helped the decision to be made.
“That is the reason we decided to pull the trigger and make the change,” Salerno said.
While happy with the changes made, Dingman said she still wishes she didn’t have to walk that far to reach the shuttles.
“It is walking through city streets, especially if you don’t know where you are so I think they can improve on that, but I’m glad they are making an effort,” she said.
Reach the reporter at jshanco2@asu.edu or follow on Twitter @joey_hancock
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