After 18 years of safely transporting female students after dark, Project Saferide is closing its doors.
Now, men and women can look forward to riding together on the new Assault Prevention Shuttle, beginning Oct. 13.
The Office of Civil Rights, a federal agency that addresses civil rights violations, recently ruled that Saferide does not comply with Title IX — a federal law prohibiting discrimination in programs supported with federal funds — because it provides services exclusively to female students. As a result, Saferide will merge with Night Ride to form the Assault Prevention Shuttle, a gender-neutral late-night shuttle service.
In 2001, Night Ride was created as a counterpart to Saferide, available to both men and women. The Office of Civil Rights still found Saferide to be a gender-biased operation, which is illegal under Title IX.
Saferide co-Director Sarah Wells said that during the summer the agency told Saferide it needed to either shut down or accommodate men. The University junior said choosing to merge was a lot easier than just closing down the 18-year-old operation.
“It’s never easy to make this big of a change,” Wells said. “But it’s an exciting time for us — we can all work together to make a better, stronger organization.”
University senior Allison Douglas has ridden Saferide multiple times during her four years at the University. She said that while she was disappointed to see the end of Saferide, she was excited about the advance toward gender equality.
“I think it’s important to have a shuttle system other than (Designated Driver Shuttle),” she said. “It’s also important to realize men can have just as big of a need for an assault prevention shuttle as women.”
University sophomore Aaron Sabin agreed, saying that he was happy to see Saferide shut down because he felt it was discriminatory and hindered the goal of gender equality.
“If women want to be on the same playing field as men, they need to be equal in all ways,” he said. Saferide has tried to solve the gender equality issue many times, said Jennifer Creighton, ASUO accounting coordinator. Creighton said that while the change will not be easy, student reaction has been positive so far.
“Everyone is dealing with the loss of Saferide,” she said. “The most important thing for students right now is to have some sort of safety prevention shuttle.”
Wells said that students who are uncomfortable riding with other people in a shuttle can request their own personal shuttle. She added that the formation of the Assault Prevention Shuttle is, in part, a leap in favor of feminism.
“APS shares a more progressive view of feminism that states women are equal to men,” she said. “It’s more of a feminism movement now because men and women are working together.”
Both Saferide and Night Ride will be running under the original names until the merge becomes official.
“We wanted returning students to be able to use the programs they were used to until we could tell them about the name change,” Night Ride co-Director Diana Erskine said in a statement.
The Assault Prevention Shuttle will have a total of five vans and 16 dispatchers at its disposal, although there will be only four on duty per night. It will run the same hours as Saferide and Night Ride, but ASUO spokeswoman Taraneh Foster said that Assault Prevention Shuttle officials hope to expand its hours winter term. For now it will be running 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
“Logistically, the organization will be the same,” Wells said. “The only thing that’s changed is that it will be gender-neutral.”