As I am writing this, Hannah Graham is still missing. By now, we have all heard the tragedy of Hannah’s disappearance: out late after a night of partying, Hannah began to walk alone, under the influence. Since then, she has been officially reported missing, and a large police search to find her has captured national headlines. While disappearance cases like Hannah’s are deeply devastating, what defines these tragedies aren't the details of the case, but how a community responds to them.
How should we, the student body of the University, react to this tragedy? Within hours, Hannah’s disappearance caused an outpouring of responses, from open mourning and shock to anger and frustration toward her friends for letting her walk away from a party alone. Overall, the general response has been commendable, if not a little standard. Many students have decided to raise awareness of her disappearance by promoting the Facebook page entitled “Help Find Hannah Graham,” while other members of the community have provided tips to the local police to aid in the search. Still, for a majority of students, Hannah’s disappearance is just another University occurrence, a situation which may disturb them for a while, but one that won’t require an active response on their part.
Fortunately, a new student-led organization has decided to take serious action against the potential root of the problem: walking alone at night.
Buddies on Call is an exciting new initiative started by first-year student Jack Capra. Jack explains that the idea of Buddies on Call came to him and his friends after a night of observing people walking back from parties. “[My friends and I] thought: hey, why don't we designate some people to walk other people back [to their dorms]?” Jack told me in an interview.
Naturally, Jack’s first thought was to promote the idea on Yik Yak, an app that allows users to post content anonymously. After receiving a huge amount of “up-votes,” he realized that he could make his idea a reality; slowly, the notion grew from an errant thought into a viable plan. It was only later, with the disappearance of Hannah, that he felt it his duty to see his idea carried out. His service wasn't just a novel idea, but a dire necessity for the University.
The basic idea of Buddies on Call is to provide instant access to a “buddy” who will walk you safely back to your dorm, whether it be from a party, the library or any other location. Jack explains the service will run 10 p.m. - 2 a.m., on Fridays and Saturdays, times during which other services like SafeRide or SafeWalk don't operate. All one has to do is call the Buddies on Call number, and the “buddy” on call will come to escort the caller back home.
SafeWalk is another very similar program that uses an almost identical “buddy” system to make walking during late nights safer. The problem with SafeWalk, however, is that it is meant almost exclusively for students leaving libraries late at night. Most late-night fraternity and club parties occur on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, and the latter two nights are not covered by SafeWalk. Hannah disappeared early on a Saturday morning, when no service would have been available to walk her home even if she had requested it.
Not only does Buddies on Call fill in the very dangerous gap of safe transportation availability during weekends, but it is also a group formed entirely by student initiative. Already, Jack’s initial post on the University of Virginia Class of 2018 Facebook page has garnered over 1100 likes, and over 500 people have shown interest in joining Buddies on Call. There is a strong sense of hope and optimism about the program; Jack has already submitted his application to Student Council to make Buddies on Call an official CIO, and is expected to get a confirmation back within 3 weeks.
Additionally, Buddies on Call has many added perks that make it an improvement over other similar buddy systems. Jack has detailed the technological aspects of Buddies on Call, explaining how he plans to integrate Google Voice technology to allow for easy contact with the Buddies on Call main line. Moreover, volunteers with the program will receive basic self-defense training to aid them in any difficulties they run into when answering a call.
Buddies on Call is exactly the type of reaction students should have to tragedies that affect our University. Instead of simply showing passive support by liking a Facebook page, Jack has taken real initiative to make sure a disappearance like Hannah’s will never happen again. In an age of widespread “slacktivism,” Buddies on Call provides a tangible, realistic and commendable service that will make our Grounds safer.
Hasan Khan is a Viewpoint writer.
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