Is Safety Shuttle Actually “Safe”?

 The campus safety shuttle here at Dickinson has been established to give students rides at night across campus or in most cases to Walmart. Its purpose is to keep students safe, especially during dark hours. 

However, recently this month, I along with two other female students on campus depended on the shuttle to take us home and it never arrived. The shuttle has a fixed schedule to let students know where and at what time it should arrive. If this system was set up, I do not understand why it does not follow through. There are times where of course it can be running late and that is comprehensible. I usually let it go, however this particular time it was past 2 a.m. and I do not feel safe walking into town at that time of day, even if it was three of us walking together. 

As we realized it was taking a longer time than usually we called DPS. The woman who would pick up our calls would simply suggest to keep waiting. The fact that the woman from DPS knew where we were at, what time it was and where we were heading made me wonder if my safety mattered to them. I felt as if my safety was not a concern. 

Who do I have to be to be taken seriously? Since it was not past 3 a.m., we walked to DPS. A man in the same room told us that the shuttle had stopped a while ago. I was confused why these two people are in the same room, but one was suggesting to keep on waiting. 

It is very frustrating to depend on a system that is meant to provide students with safety but fails to do so. It is much more concerning that the ones who are meant to keep us safe on campus express no concern. At this point, I would just ask for better communication to be established between DPS and the shuttle driver. In the long run, a better safety shuttle system would be ideal because as it is now, it is unorganized and it does not fully follow through with its purpose.