Association of Amherst Students Senator Tasha Kim ‘18 presented a proposal last week for creating emergency cards that would provide important local police and transportation information to Amherst students. These neon yellow cards contain the numbers of campus police for each of the Five Colleges and also give students the last times for Pioneer Valley Transit Authority buses back to Amherst. The numbers for Safe Ride and taxi services are also provided.
The cards are the latest of various senate projects that have been implemented this year. Others include the First-Year Formal and the reorganization of the trash bins in Valentine Dining Hall. Creating a senate project is mandatory for all senators, and funding is drawn from a separate AAS budget. Kim said that the 1,800 cards she printed from the Office of Administrative and Services and Mailing Center cost only $22.65.
“The idea is just to raise awareness about safety,” Kim said. “I have friends who have been at different colleges and gotten stranded because they didn’t realize what time the last PVTA left or got on the wrong bus and didn’t know who to call, and it was a big deal to get them back to campus.”
Blaine Werner ‘15, another senator, agreed.
“I’ve had several times when I’ve been at Smith, forgotten to check when the last bus is leaving, and my phone had died at that point, and it became a struggle to charge my cell phone soon enough to see when the last bus was leaving,” Werner said. “This card doesn’t need a battery, so in that situation it sure beats a dead cellphone.”
Werner said that he got the original idea of creating emergency cards from Smith College, which distributes similar cards to its students, but he did not have the time to actually create the cards because of his senior thesis deadline. He said that he told Kim about the proposal and she decided to make the cards herself.
Kim said that she collaborated with a few Residential Counselors to receive input on what information should be on the cards.
Werner and Kim both said that so far, this initiative has received positive feedback.
“It’s been pretty much rave reviews from fellow senators who were at the meeting when Tasha requested funding for the cards and explained what they were,” Werner said.
Kim said that she sent the card to the printer this past Friday, but is still deciding whether to pass out the cards before the end of the year, since students may lose them over the summer. She said that they will be distributed to the incoming first-year students next academic year and plans to place cards in student mailboxes for pick up.
“It’s been pretty much rave reviews from fellow senators who were at the meeting when Tasha requested funding for the cards and explained what they were,” Werner said.
Kim said that she sent the card to the printer this past Friday, but is still deciding whether to pass out the cards before the end of the year, since students may lose them over the summer. She said that they will be distributed to the incoming first-year students next academic year and plans to place cards in student mailboxes for pick up.
