Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2016 | Volume 212 | Number 2 | 40 cents | iowastatedaily.com | An independent student newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890.
SafeRide
DPS launches new app to revamp former safety escort service
By Alex.Connor @iowastatedaily.com
L
ooking for an Uber-style app that will provide you safe rides to a variety of locations on campus? For free? Search no further. The Department of Public Safety launched a new app Friday called SafeRide ISU, an updated variation of Iowa State’s former safety escort service. SafeRide ISU, which is available on both iPhone and Android, was created after Iowa State’s former escort service saw a higher demand in users, and is available to anyone on campus between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Anthony Greiter, community outreach officer for the ISU Police Department, said the new app and service will be available 365 days a year, a switch that was made informally a couple years ago. Greiter said the app is designed to streamline everything the service originally did, including choosing a driver best based on GPS coordinates and location. “It will pair rides together based on location to expedite the process so we no longer have to have six people waiting for rides,” Greiter said. Interim Police Chief Aaron Delashmutt first mentioned the app during a Board of Regents meeting in April, and said they
were in the process of requesting and evaluating proposals for the new application, the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported.At the time, he said he had hoped they could get the app running by the 2016-2017 school year. Greiter, along with others, worked to develop the app over the summer, and he said that even though the development of SafeRide was out-sourced, it was designed to be ISU specific. “[It was] not developed on campus,” Greiter said, “but developed with campus in mind.” As for the reason for the name change from safety escort to SafeRide, Greiter said SafeRide already exists on so many campuses and they wanted to move away from the old name with the addition of the app. “One of the amazing things about SafeRide is it’s accessible on any mobile, so we’ll have iPads in the vehicles that are used for SafeRide,” Greiter said. “[The vehicle] will run almost the exact same system that the rider gets to see.” Scott Lindley, community service officer, CSO, has been giving safety escorts for almost two years. Lindley believes that having SafeRide will make the escort service a lot easier for the user and the driver. “It actually shows the user where they can get SafeRide to and from,” Lindley said. “It lets the user know the SafeRide is
there and it also gives them a receipt so they can see what time they were picked up and what time they were dropped off.” SafeRide is run by the community services officers, Greiter said. They are student employees who are run through background checks and screenings, and are the ones who previously operated the safety escort system. The new app will also include features such as a honk button, an ability to request gas assists, vehicle jump starts and unlocks, along with GPS tracking. The honk feature, Lindley said, will allow the driver to notify the rider that they are outside the pick-up location. SafeRide is only available from one campus location to another campus location, including greek housing and university leased apartments. Lindley, junior in interdisciplinary studies, said the only negative about the app so far is that they weren’t able to get it to go live sooner, and they will have to wait to see if there are any bugs in the system. “Overall, it’s going to be great for the students and easier for our drivers,” Lindley said. Student Government President Cole Staudt agreed about the new SafeRide app. “I think it’s a really great service that we’re fortunate to have to help our students get home
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Leath explains waived searches He attributes large number to research, hiring spouses By Alex.Hanson @iowastatedaily.com ISU President Steven Leath is attributing the large number of waived searches at the university to spousal hiring and the recruitment of highly talented research individuals. Leath has come under fire in recent weeks and the past year after several media reports of the school waiving searches for certain
individuals. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported on Aug. 14 that Iowa State waived 140 searches, while the University of Iowa waived even more — 179. In comparison, the University of Northern Iowa waived just one. This promoted some to question if Leath, University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld and other key higher education figures such as Board of Regents President Bruce Rastetter were picking favorites or not allowing a wide range of candidates to apply for positions at the two larger schools. Leath, in an interview with Iowa State Daily editors last week, said Iowa State and Iowa are larger research institutions, meaning some searches for research-oriented
Forums kick off for new ISU position By Jake.Dalbey @iowastatedaily.com
Katy Klopfenstein/Iowa State Daily
ISU President Steven Leath attributed the large number of waived searches at Iowa State to the recruitment of talented research individuals and the hiring of spouses during an interview with Iowa State Daily editors and staff on Wednesday.
positions sometimes seek talented individuals with a specific skill set — something that may not be served better with a drawn-out open search. Leath offered the example of wanting to recruit someone from the National Academy of Med-
icine, Science or Engineering, which are “very difficult” to recruit, and said it makes more sense to waive the search and hire the person who is talented. “Unlike UNI, we’re a major re-
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Phi Kappa Tau returns to Iowa State Fraternity targets new members By Dani.Gehr @iowastatedaily.com Phi Kappa Tau has returned to Iowa State to establish a new chapter after leaving in 1999 because of dwindling numbers. Phi Kappa Tau, a fraternity with 86 chapters around the country, is attempting to diversify this individual chapter, as well as the fraternity as a whole, by coming to Iowa State. Its main concern is to cater to the number of students not involved in a fraternity. “As an organization, we don’t want to be the same group of guys in the same area of the country,” said Darryl Thompson, a recruiter
for Phi Kappa Tau. “We ourselves want to grow as people. I think starting a new chapter in a new area definitely helps to diversify on a national level.” The fraternity is ready to cater to students who are still looking for their place in greek life, as well as those possibly carrying prejudices against greek organizations. It plans to break down stigmas and recruit students to Phi Kappa Tau. “We’re kind of looking for, the way we like to push it, the guys who may not have been ready to join but are ready to help build something,” said Logan Lukacs, associate director of organization growth for the fraternity. In order to attract students from all different backgrounds, Phi Kappa Tau is looking for recruits from all different organizations on campus. Whether
they come from an athletic background or are into extracurriculars, Phi Kappa Tau is interested in recruiting them. “We are also looking for the guys who haven’t gotten a chance to get involved yet, so maybe guys who have just been going here because it was one of the top schools on their list, they got in, and suddenly they didn’t plug into something that meant a whole lot to them,” Lukacs said. Along with working on diversifying the organization, Phi Kappa Tau also plans to add a few charitable foundations it has worked closely with for the past several years. By doing this, it hopes to create a new outlet for recruits to better the community while spending time with their closest friends. “That’s something that our new recruits really latch onto,”
Thompson said. “The opportunity to help not only in their community, but really help our national philanthropy.” Phi Kappa Tau has worked closely with SeriousFun Children’s Network and United Service Organizations in the past. Serious Fun Children’s Network was started by an alumnus, and the fraternity has worked with the organization for the past 16 years, partnering with USO in 2012. Phi Kappa Tau is taking the next seven or so weeks to meet with potential new recruits and make its first connections since leaving Iowa State. It hopes to have around 40 to 60 recruits by the first week of October. The fraternity does not currently have a house in Ames, but is focusing on getting more members first, and then hopes to get a house within the next couple years.
The first of three open forums to determine the Hispanic/Latino affairs project director began Monday in the Memorial Union. Much like the recent LGBTQA+ affairs project director open forums, the chosen candidates were tasked with answering a prompt related to advocacy and activism and how the terms are integrated into Iowa State. Elizabeth Mendez-Shannon, an assistant professor of social work at the Metropolitan State University in Denver, as well as an activist for issues related to undocumented immigration, spoke about the steps toward advocacy and social activism and touched on issues of diversity, specifically in Iowa. Shannon began by creating distinctions between advocacy and activism, using typical imagery that is associated with each word. “What I saw when I searched advocacy was that this term is always trying to serve a voice and lift a voice toward change,” Shannon said. “It may not be mine but I’m representing a voice. Activism is a different tone. I see protest as in ‘I’ve tried to speak within the system, but I’ve had enough.’” For Shannon, both serve as a strategy for change and building alliances. However, the processes are seen in different lights — activism being outside the system and advocacy working within a given system. This is in conjunction with the historical context of each, as advocacy often seeks more peaceful alternatives to possibly violent protests.
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