Issue date: 4/14/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Doug Klembara The Corp of Cadets escort service, which is offered 24 hours a day, gives students the opportunity to walk securely throughout campus. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Doug Klembara Escorts from the Corps are on call 24 hours a day, standing by to help students on campus who are in need of a guide or assistance. [Click to enlarge]

It's the wee hours of the night and a student stands alone in the dark, in front of the Memorial Student Center, afraid to walk to his or her car parked in West Campus garage.

The Corps of Cadets offers an escort service 24 hours a day and accompanies students to their destinations to improve campus safety in just such a case.

The service is one of the Corps' many long-standing traditions. The service aims to give students peace of mind and a feeling of security, especially when walking alone at night. Students can call at any time of the day, but most escorts are requested past 10 p.m. on weeknights.

To get an escort, students call the Guard Room and request a cadet to walk with them. The caller must provide his or her name, location and destination when placing the call. A cadet will arrive within a few minutes, depending on the location. After reaching the destination, escorted students have to sign a slip of paper confirming the escort for the Corps' records.

Starting locations and destinations must be on campus. Most calls are placed from Main Campus locations such as the Student Computing Center, Evans Library or parking garages, but the Corps accepts calls from West Campus.

Members of the Corps set up a schedule to be in the Guard Room based on units. Each unit is on call for three to four 12-hour shifts each semester. The 12-hour shifts are either from noon to midnight or midnight to noon, but there are times when calls are sparse. Cadets often say they are pleased to get a call.

"I know freshmen are usually very happy to escort someone because it means that they have a reason to get out of the Guard Room," said Erik Christensen, a freshman general studies major in Squadron 20.

Although the idea of walking for 10 minutes with a total stranger across a dark campus may seem intimidating to some, those who have used the service rarely say it is awkward or unusual. Most agreed it offered a great chance for conversation.

Caitlin Vanasse, a freshman animal science major, and Kellie Syfan, a freshman biomedical sciences major, have used the escort service and were pleased with the experience.

"I thought it would be really dorky the first time I called, but I promised my mom I would," Vanasse said. "But when I got a Corps escort, it wasn't dorky or especially special at all. It was just normal."

"They're really nice and fun to talk to," Syfan said. "I've made some friends and heard some great stories. If you ever have a night when you just want to talk to a guy, call an escort."

Though the service is geared to provide a sense of safety for the students walking alone on campus, cadets can be called to a variety of places and purposes. Jonathan Dunton, a freshmen political science major in the Corps, was once faced with his own unusual circumstance.

"One night, a girl called requesting an escort from [her dorm] to Coke Street - a distance of about 30 yards," Dunton said. "Upon talking with her, she said she had left some valuables at a party she had attended and did not totally know the man returning them."

Dunton stood guard as the man pulled up in his car and handed the items through the window.

"She did a quick inventory, thanked the man and myself and returned to her dorm," he said.

No matter what the reason, the cadets welcome the chance to help their fellow Aggies.

"I think that there could be more calls from students because that is what we are here for," Christensen said. "The cadets who are sitting guard are here to make sure that the person escorted makes it safely to their destination."

The Corps Escort Service can be reached 24 hours a day at (979)845-6789. The number is designed to be easy to remember and can be found on the back of all student ID cards.

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