The Auburn Student Government Association announced a feature that was on the Auburn Safety app called Buddy Walk during its first fall senate meeting on Monday night.
Abby Ronson, executive vice president of communications and marketing, introduced the concept to the Senate.
"Essentially, the idea is that if you don't have a buddy to walk home with, your phone is your new buddy," Ronson said. "So that means if I started walking from here to the Village, and I don't have anyone to walk with me, my parents aren't awake, etc. and I know that it's gonna take me about 15 minutes, to get from here to the Village. So I set that on my phone, if I don't either turn it off or make it to my location in 15 minutes, it alerts campus safety and a preferred contact."
Brooke Bailey, communications and marketing specialist for Campus Safety and Security, said. that the app was launched in 2018 and was an original feature of the Auburn safety app when it launched in 2018.
"IT allows users to temporarily share their location with another individual via the app. The "friend" will receive a link via text or email and once accepted, a map will open showing the user’s location as a dot and it will show their destination." Bailey said. "As they move, that dot moves with their location. Once the user arrives at their destination, they hit end trip and their location will no longer be shared. If there were an emergency, the user has a panic button that alerts their friend of an emergency and triggers a call to 911."
Christopher Roberts, president of Auburn University, stopped by the Senate to welcome everyone back and commit to working closely with SGA to make Auburn's campus the best it can be.
"I believe that one of the most important things that we can do is to create a culture on this campus where everyone is welcomed, valued, respected and engaged. If everybody on campus feels that way, they'll do amazing things," Roberts said. "I look forward to working with you all, to work on some things we're motivated towards, and providing opportunities for other students to be motivated by having an exceptional campus and exceptional student experience."
During the open forum session of the meeting, Adeline Sabados and Jackie Barret of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee came to talk about providing more mental health support to student athletes.
"I don't know if y'all know this, but mental health's been a real big force this past year with athletics," Barret said.
They are introducing a new Wellness Committee to further their commitment to providing better mental health support to all Auburn athletes.
"So basically that's one of our main goals this year is to increase involvement of student athletes on the actual campus and that's why we're here today because we understand it's a two way street and so we would love to collaborate," Sabados said.
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Ethan Stamper, journalism major, is the campus reporter for The Auburn Plainsman.
