If the administration’s tuition incentives proposal is approved by the State Board of Higher Education as expected this month, beginning fall term, additional classes will be offered at a discounted price in the late afternoon and early evening.
As a result, the number of people on campus during those hours is likely to double next year — and more students will be leaving their classrooms after dark, the time of day when most recent attacks on campus have occurred.
But whether more students on campus in the evening is a cause for concern or a step toward making campus a safer place remains unclear.
University Provost John Moseley believes having more people in the area will make it less likely for an attacker to find someone in an isolated location. Campus safety advocates and student government leaders agree, but they say it remains to be seen whether safety issues related to the later scheduling will arise.

More people on campus could increase safety
The tuition incentives proposal is aimed at maximizing classroom capacity and providing more choices for students. With enrollment rising again next year, the University needs to use all the time and space available for classes, Moseley said.
“We’re going to have to pretty much use all of our classroom capacity all day,” he said.
Typically, the number of students on campus drops significantly after 2 p.m. each day, but with discounts offered next year on classes beginning at 3, 4 and 5 p.m., Moseley said he expects to see twice as many students on campus in the late afternoon and early evening. Discounted courses will generally be large classes, in the 50+ range, because scheduling availability of large classrooms is limited earlier in the day.
Although classes beginning at 4 and 5 p.m. may end after dark in the winter months, Moseley said having more students and faculty members on campus later in the day will actually increase safety, because attacks are less likely to take place in populated areas.
“Having more people on campus makes for a safer environment in and of itself,” he said.
Moseley added that the later scheduling offers more options for students who may work or have other activities during the day. The tuition incentives proposal will not affect classes scheduled after 5 p.m., which are often scheduled at night to accommodate student schedules, he said.
“We don’t arbitrarily schedule classes late at night for the heck of it,” he said. “They’re usually being held in the evening to serve the interests of students in the class.”

Safety advocates undecided
Project Saferide Co-Director Morgen Smith said she isn’t sure whether Moseley’s reasoning would be enough to ensure student safety on campus at night. She said campus safety would probably remain “about the same” with the new scheduling, neither better or worse than before.
Saferide, a sexual-assault prevention service that offers free rides around the University area to female University students, could have trouble keeping up with demand if more students taking late classes call the service for rides. Saferide already gives an average of 60 rides a night, and Smith said expanding service is not an option without more resources.
“The only way we can expand is if we get more funding and more volunteers,” she said. “We can’t necessarily give more rides just because of more demand.”
Night Ride, another campus transportation service that begins service this summer, may be able to help relieve some of that demand. Developed by Saferide’s directors, the co-ed shuttle will have one van and operate similarly to Saferide. Both services are funded by the student fee.
Both Saferide and Night Ride will give rides on “a first-come, first-served” basis, she said. “There’s nothing more we can do.”
Michelle Manoguerra, community education coordinator for Sexual Assault Support Services, said she also was not sure what affect the later scheduling would have on campus safety.
“I could see it both ways,” she said. “I would hope it would be safer.”
Although most of the recent attacks of students on campus have occurred after dark, she said it is important to remember that time of day is not the only risk factor to consider in sexual assault.
“Thirty-five percent of sexual assaults happen during the day,” she said. “It’s not always at nighttime.”

Student leaders to wait and see
ASUO Vice President Joy Nair said she has concerns about the increase in later classes because she doesn’t think administrators considered the safety of students at all when they developed the proposal.
“They feel like it won’t really affect a lot of students, and I think that could be a problem,” she said.
Nair said she and ASUO President Nilda Brooklyn have discussed their questions about the proposal with administrators, but they are leaving safety responses for next year up to incoming ASUO President and Vice President Rachel Pilliod and Ben Buzbee.
Brooklyn and Nair, who have just more than one month left in their term, will hand over control of ASUO on May 25. Pilliod said she hadn’t “heard anything definite as to whether people think (later classes) would increase security concerns,” but said she and Buzbee would have a better idea as to how the new scheduling will affect student safety by fall term.
Once fall term gets underway, she said they would look at “where we’re at” in terms of safety on campus, and work on addressing any safety issues related to the later scheduling before winter, when more students would have classes ending after dark.
“As soon as we get into November, December, the winter months, it will become much more of a concern,” she said.