UT Student Government passed a resolution Tuesday to support student developers in its creation of a new app for SURE Walk, a program that helps students get home safely from campus at night.
Student United for Rape Elimination, or SURE Walk, was established by SG in 1982 and partnered with UT Parking and Transportation Services in 2016 to introduce golf carts and other vehicles into the program’s fleet, according to KXAN. The SG resolution authors, business freshman Ford Myers and Leander D’Costa, an international relations and global studies senior, wrote that the program has a history of long wait times, and a bad user interface and experience, which discourages students from utilizing the service, according to the resolution.
Students can either call 512-232-9255 or use a form to request the service through 8 p.m. – 2 a.m. every day, wrote Dennis Delaney, an assistant director for Parking and Transportation, in an email. Rides must start from on-campus locations and travel into either West Campus, around campus or anywhere in SURE Walk’s off-campus boundary, he wrote.
First-year representative Myers said students might not like the service’s current Google Form method for requesting a ride.
“Many people look at that and think ‘I’d rather just walk,’” Myers said. “The way things are now, people would rather find another way home than to use something that could prevent them from getting jumped or getting into a wreck or something.”
Delaney wrote Parking and Transportation has partnered with Longhorn Developers, a student organization that creates and designs apps, like the UT Registration Plus Extension, to work on creating a new mobile app with GPS functions to aid rider pick up. He said they are looking to include the app into the ‘My UT’ app.
“We are looking forward to working with them to create a custom solution that will enhance the Sure Walk program for the UT community,” Delaney wrote.
University-wide representative D’Costa said he is proud that SG is able to bring support to SURE Walk updates, and is hopeful that this will improve accessibility to resources for all students.
“It will definitely help the safety aspect,” D’Costa said. “This will cut time, it will cut down all the different things that involve looking at a Google Form that’s currently in place, to look at an app. It’s a lot quicker, it’s a lot safer, you can track (students) easily.”
To further support the efforts, the authors said they will attend meetings between Longhorn Developers and the University to voice their opinions and concerns on the app’s implementation up until its release. Together, they plan to promote the final app through videos and Instagram posts to increase engagement and visibility of SURE Walk.
“It takes a lot of time to build an app, to go through that process, to find the rights, to figure out what you want in the app and to actually have it in the physical form that Longhorn Developers currently do,” D’Costa said. “It’s really, really exciting for the students and very beneficial to them at the same time.”
