Content warning: This article contains mention of sexual assault and violence.
Two years ago, as I sat listening to SOAR presenters introduce a long list of safety resources available to incoming students, I felt relieved that I was going to attend a university that cared so much about the safety of the students. Among those resources was SAFEwalk, a system the University of Wisconsin-Madison made to help students get home safely at night.
It works by sending students in pairs to a person’s location to walk them anywhere on campus at night so they don’t need to go by themself. At the time, it seemed like a great idea — free, convenient and meant to protect students walking home alone after dark.
But after spending two years on campus, I’ve found that despite the university's efforts to promote SAFEwalk, students still refuse to use it.
At the beginning of my freshman year, I vividly remember hearing stories of a girl who was brutally attacked by a stranger while walking home alone at night. The details were horrifying, and yet, the story didn’t stop me or other students from continuing to walk home alone. When I asked a fellow student why she avoided the system, she said it’s “become a joke with my friends, we make fun of it.”
She went on to explain how being escorted home by two people in neon jackets feels “embarrassing and dramatic,” even if the alternative is walking home completely by herself. She isn’t alone in thinking that way, especially among women, who face a greater risk of harassment or violence when walking alone. Even with such a violent reminder of the potential dangers, many of us weigh the embarrassment of calling SAFEwalk against the risks and still choose to take our chances.
But the risks of using SAFEwalk run deeper than facing embarrassment — some students struggle to trust the system altogether. As a current sophomore I spoke with explained, sometimes “walking home with strangers seems even worse than walking alone.”
She expressed doubts that the training SAFEwalkers receive does much to build trust.
"A lot of police have training…that doesn’t make them trustworthy,” she said.
While SAFEwalkers are trained in basic safety and bystander intervention, there is still a lack of transparency about their qualifications, making it difficult to see them as reassuring figures.
It also doesn’t help that becoming a SAFEwalker doesn’t seem particularly challenging. The hiring process includes an online group interview followed by a brief training program. Once hired, workers are paid $11 per hour to walk students home between 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. Although it sounds good in theory, in practice, meeting strangers late at night — especially as a woman — can feel just as risky as walking alone.
For many students, especially those who are intoxicated after a night out, the option of walking home alone still feels like the safer and less embarrassing choice. The bottom line is, if the university wants to keep students safe, SAFEwalk needs to change. Now, students are forced to choose between the discomfort and awkwardness of calling SAFEwalk — even when it’s the smarter decision — and the dangers of walking home alone.
One potential solution for students living in residence halls could involve House Fellows making group chats for their floors to create walking groups made up of familiar faces. By encouraging students to form connections within their residence halls, they could more easily plan a walk home they feel comfortable with. This approach would get rid of that awkwardness of calling strangers while still addressing the safety concerns of walking alone
Another step in the right direction could involve making SAFEwalk feel more personal and transparent. Adding a human element, such as names, photos and short bios of SAFEwalkers, could increase trust and accountability. Sometimes, just knowing who is coming to walk you home could make the experience feel less like meeting a random stranger and more like being assisted by a fellow student. This small change could have the power to reduce feelings of unease that many students have about the service.
The bottom line is, even though SAFEwalk was made with good intentions, the program isn’t being used due to a combination of embarrassment, discomfort and lack of trust. If the university wants to make SAFEwalk safe and successful, they need to address these issues by creating a sense of community, increasing transparency and improving training. Until then, the choice between walking alone or calling SAFEwalk will remain a difficult one for many students, especially women, who just want to get home safely.
