🚀 go-pugleaf

Warning: this is a little long.
	A Saturday night not too long ago, I was in an opera which
finished around 11:30.  The people I asked couldn't give me a ride home
(it's 20 minutes walk, and no one was walking that way either), so I
called King's walkhome for a walk.  The dispatch told me that the walkers
had another two walks after the one they were doing, and suggested I call
Tiger Patrol.  I used my last quarter calling them, and when I gave my
destination (Quinpool Towers), I was informed that "our walkers don't go
that far on foot."  Ok, I said, when's the next van leave to arrive at
BagelWorks?  "Sunday night."  (I might add that the person to whom I spoke
was neither especially courteous or apologetic about this.) Gee thanks, I
thought, and hung up.  I bummed another quarter, called home, and got my
boyfriend to walk to campus to get me and walk me home.  So it was about
12:30 by the time we got home and I had another show the next day.
	I've spoken with Sandy MacDonald, head of Dal Security, having 
been referred to him by the DSU.  He explained to me that the Tiger 
patrol walkers never walk off campus, and that the shuttlebus only runs 
on nights when the library is open.  These were, he said, decisions of 
the DSU.  He also said that walkers don't leave campus because when they 
do so they are out of the jurisdiction of Dal Security, and should they 
get "in trouble" D.S. can't help them.  He also referred to various bits 
of paperwork like insurance and so on as reasons for the walkers not going 
off campus.
	I find it rather ironic that Tiger patrol walkers, who are paid 
and trained and checked for criminal records and the like (acc. Sandy)
won't do any long walks, whereas King's walkers, who are volunteers, with 
minimal training, will walk wherever they have to go (the offical 
boundaires are Allan, South, Robie, and another street I forget, but I 
myself have walked someone from Park Lane one night, and to my knowledge 
walks are rarely, if ever, turned down).  As Mr. MacDonald said, that's
their prerogative.  But as a result, my prerogative will involve a lot 
more people in purple jackets than people in fluorescent vests, 
regardless of the fact that I am a Dalhousie student.
	I would like to see, if not a shuttle bus running on Saturday 
nights (actually, I'd like to see the library ope late on Saturday nights 
too), Dal walkers who are actually willing to walk people who need it.  
Obviously, there are student functions which take place on Saturday 
nights, such as the one I was in.
But not much sense grumbling; I guess Dal students who need walks on 
Saturday nights will just have to call King's walkhome instead.
Opinions?

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><                                                                   <>
<> Laura McBurnie, Impossible Soprano       |  "I hate quotations."  ><
>< lmcburni@is.dal.ca                       | -Ralph Waldo Emerson   <>
<>                                                                   ><
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