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THE DOUGLAS COLLEGE NEWSLETTER lf DECEMBER 1994

Safe Walk service up and running

ou don’t have to walk alone at

night any more, thanks to a new volunteer Safe Walk Program which

started last month at Douglas College.

The free service allows students, employees and visitors at the New Westminster campus to be escorted anywhere within three blocks of the College - to parked cars, homes, or the SkyTrain station - by a two-person Safe Walk team. Each co-ed team consists of a female and male volunteer equipped with a two-way radio, flashlights, personal audio alarms and picture ID badges.

The project was organized by criminology student Joe Spear and is based on other successful programs already operating in institutions such as the University of Alberta and McGill University.

“Safety and security is not a large problem in the College and we want to make sure that it stays that way,” says Spear. “We’re offering a safer alternative to walking alone.”

Spear says the program is designed to deter incidents through the presence of volunteers, but he stresses that team members will not intervene physically in any confrontation. However, each volunteer is trained to contact the radio dispatcher of the College’s security service. All of the volunteers are presently students, but College employees would also be welcome.

Canadian institutions already offering similar services report beneficial results.

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The scale model of the Pinetree Way campus is drawing a lot of attention these days. Site development starts immediately on the real thing, and should be completed by September 1996. Velma Smith (left) of the Office Administration program and Dean of Community Programs & Services Jim Doerr looked the model over at an information session for the new campus on November 17.

PINETREE’S OFFICIAL... TWICE!

wo events were held in late November to mark the official announcement of money to build Douglas College’s Pinetree Way campus in Coquitlam.

It’s more than 20 years since Douglas College’s founders circled a spot on the map in Coquitlam, and over four years since plans for the project were first announced with the City of

Coquitlam and School District No. 43 as partners.

On November 22, the three partners gathered with Ministry officials and community members in a crowded public reception at the Aquatic Centre adjacent to the building site on Pinetree Way in Coquitlam. Their announcements brought all the hard work of the past four years into

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