TCU safety service will shift away from golf cart rides in favor of escorted walks
TCU’s Froggie 5-0 program will primarily use walking escorts instead of golf carts to accompany students with safety concerns starting this fall, the university’s vice chancellor of public safety, Adrian Andrews, told the Star-Telegram on Wednesday.
Froggie 5-0 gives around 3,000 rides a month from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. with a focus on those with safety concerns, according to the campus police website.
Instead of deploying golf carts like the program normally does, the university will instead shift to a model in which a team of two student employees with the organization will provide escorts to those who request them.
Andrews said the goal is to make it so anyone who calls for the service — whether that be faculty, staff, students or guests — can get a walking escort from two student employees with Froggie 5-0, who he called “Froggies.”
The 24 to 28 Froggies on staff will be equipped with security lighting, radio and vests. Andrews said they would also train the student employees in first aid and self defense, which he said would cost the university nothing due to in-house resources and staff.
The golf carts will only be deployed if a person calling for the service can’t get around by walking, like, for example, an injured athlete, Andrews said.
“We never ever want to tell a student that they cannot have an escort if it’s a security escort that they need,” Andrews said.
Money a main factor in TCU’s decision
One of the main factors in the decision was the cost to maintain the golf carts, Andrews said. The gas-run carts cost about $8,000 to $10,000, and the university replaces about two a year. Andrews said the university also wanted to be environmentally friendly and encourage people to walk.
“A decision has been made,” Andrews said. “We’re moving forward with it, and it’s going to make our campus safer, friendlier — if you can imagine TCU being even friendlier — it’s going to be that way because instead of just riding on a cart with the person you’ll have two individuals there who will get to know the students and be an opportunity for that environment to grow as well.”
Andrews said his office talked to student groups, parents and Froggie 5-0 supervisors and drivers to find out if the changes would be successful.
But one student employee with Froggie 5-0, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, told the Star-Telegram there was hardly dialogue about the new format with the organization itself. The student said they first heard of a more solid change of plans through an article in TCU360, a campus news site that initially broke the news of the impending changes.
The student told the Star-Telegram the organization has had instances of people abusing Froggie 5-0. While the program is for people with genuine safety concerns, some students have been using it as an excuse to not walk, the student said.
The organization had come up with a concession to use smaller golf carts so it wouldn’t have the means to cart large groups across campus, according to the student and another driver, Noah Tennant. At one point the group even considered transitioning to electric carts, though the issues with charging availability would be a hassle, the anonymous student said.
Student safety concerns
The student said there are more threats on campus than one may realize. Sometimes those issues are ones Froggie 5-0 can assist with, but other times it’s TCU’s police department that needs to step in with Froggie 5-0 working alongside them.
The campus has reported two instances of on-campus aggravated assault in the past three years — one in 2018 and one in 2020, according to Clery Act statistics, the federal law that requires colleges to provide crime data.
Tennant said in an email that the organization had brought up concerns with the safety of those walking. Andrews was adamant there wasn’t going to be a safety issue with the new changes.
The anonymous student said the plan within Froggie 5-0 was originally to establish a walking service in the places where the golf carts couldn’t reach, a plan the student said was brought to Andrews’ interns around spring break.
“There’s supposed to be a meeting coming up but as far as I can tell, it’s not so much going to be a discussion,” the student said.
Student employees with Froggie 5-0 have since been asked by Andrews to not speak to the press, citing their position as TCU employees and the staff handbook, which says media contact needs to be coordinated with the university’s communications department.
“Usually we have a one-voice policy thing that makes sure that we send out a consistent message from the program,” Andrews said. “We don’t want someone else’s opinion. We also always want to direct them up the chain to the person who has been media trained and who has had some experience in dealing with the media.”
Andrews said he wanted to make sure the right message was out there, and because he is the one making the changes to Froggie 5-0, he said he was the proper source to talk to.
Students milled about campus at around noon Wednesday, and those who spoke with the Star-Telegram largely knew nothing of the changes.
Freshman student Ella Amis admittedly used the service only when she parked far away and didn’t want to walk. Jacob Samson, a junior, said the new format wouldn’t be as comfortable. Samson said that since the service mainly ran at night, the carts provided a faster service if someone didn’t feel safe. He foresaw it being slower with just walking.
Madi Hebert, a freshmen, has used Froggie 5-0 in the past for hauling groceries. She said the golf cart was fast, and acted as a form of protection if someone was trying to be safe. Freshman Sarah Lawrence said she’s used Froggie 5-0 to get across campus when she couldn’t walk far, which happens on occasion due to her heart condition.
Hebert said having some golf carts will be nice, but that the service was generally slow in general and that in the past she’d eventually concede to walking because of long wait times.
Andrews said the university prides itself on making sure its students don’t need to worry about their safety.
“The uproar about changing Froggy 5-0 is a little surprising to me,” Andrews said. “We would never take away safety at school. Never ever, and there’s no one who’s ever been hurt because we didn’t have a safety escort. And we’re going to continue that, it’s just going to be in a different format.”
This story was originally published April 20, 2022 at 4:58 PM.
