The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/25/08 Section: Opinions

ALLY WALLS

It's 2:30 a.m. on a Saturday in downtown Athens, and you have just spent your last $3 on a hot dog. Instead of stumbling back to the North Deck and dangerously getting behind the wheel, you luckily remember WatchDawgs is there to give you a safe ride home.

WatchDawgs, Inc. is a student-run nonprofit organization that provides University students and others in need with safe, free and nonjudgmental rides home.

Aside from the risks to all of us posed by drunken drivers, particularly on and around college campuses, there are several other reasons why one former University student brought the vision of a safe ride home program to the University in 2001. These include the risks of being mugged when attempting to walk home and incidents such as last semester's white van abductions.

In its past seven years of operation, WatchDawgs has given safe rides to more than 35,000 people. That's 35,000 fewer chances for a DUI, alcohol-related injury or death. Awesome, right?

Apparently not to some members of the University administration.

In 2004, WatchDawgs won the Student Organization Achievement and Recognition award for Organization of the Year. But in 2005, for reasons unknown to the current executive board of WatchDawgs, the group was not re-approved as a registered student organization and has continued to apply with little success.

In the most recent attempt, the WatchDawgs executive board was informed it could become a registered student organization only if the group publicly opposed the consumption of alcohol. Unfortunately, this stance contradicts the principles upon which WatchDawgs - and more than 10 other collegiate safe ride programs across the country - was founded. WatchDawgs strongly believes in remaining a nonjudgmental organization with a focus on safety.

College students will experiment with, overindulge in or just say no to alcohol. WatchDawgs exists to protect all of these students - and the Athens community - from continuous threats posed by drunken drivers and other criminal activities. WatchDawgs is not here to preach about a student's choice of whether or not to consume alcohol.

So herein lies WatchDawgs' dilemma: Without being named a registered University student organization, we have no access to prime campus venues to advertise and hold events. Thus, the awareness of the organization and our ability to help students is on the decline.

But to conform to the University's stance on alcohol consumption would cause patrons to feel as if they are being judged for being intoxicated and fear consequences from acknowledging they are drunk. This could lead to fear of using the WatchDawgs service and, instead, promote the drunken driving and unsafe activities the organization seeks to avoid.

During the past three years WatchDawgs has not been an official part of the University, fewer and fewer people are volunteering their time to help keep their peers safe. The future of the WatchDawgs service is in jeopardy.

It is important to note that WatchDawgs is not asking for any financial support from the administration. We are funded through a number of sponsors who agree with our mission, such as University Parents & Family, Leon Farmer and Co., Landmark Properties and several other local businesses and restaurants.

We need only the approval of the administration and support of student volunteers to make WatchDawgs the amazing success it is destined to be. Let the University know you want and need this service, and volunteer to become a WatchDawgs member. Help us keep alive and expand the vision of WatchDawgs that began in 2001.

To find out more about WatchDawgs, stop by Saturday's Rider Appreciation Night on College and Washington avenues, from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. or e-mail WDpublicrelations@gmail.com.

- Ally Walls is director of public relations for WatchDawgs.

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