Student crime safety group to close down

ATHENS - A decade-old student crime safety organization that spread to nearly 100 colleges is expected to close Monday. <br> <br> Safe Campuses Now, an independent organization that has provided crime information, personal safety tips and off-campus safety ratings for thousands of University of Georgia students, is shutting down because it was not able to meet state and federal requirements for tax-exempt, nonprofit status. <br> <br> ``I feel like the students are really going to be at a loss,&#39;&#39; said Kelsey Satterfield, student director of the group. <br> <br> Executive Director Nancy Zechella said the group still could be revived if someone made Safe Campuses Now a new corporation. She estimated it could be run for about $40,000 a year. <br> <br> The group has received state funding in the past it got a $30,000 local assistance grant from the state Department of Community Affairs this year that now will have to be returned. <br> <br> Safe Campuses Now uses student volunteers to collect and publish data about crimes against students, rates apartments and neighborhoods, and gives high-schoolers safety tips when they leave home. <br> <br> ``They were a great resource for students, particularly the new ones coming in who may have been a little naive,&#39;&#39; said Lt. Joe Walter of Athens-Clarke police. ``They&#39;re going to be missing a big &#39;heads-up.&#39;&#39;&#39; <br> <br> By using peer groups to distribute information, the group was able to work in ways that others couldn&#39;t, said Asa Boynton, who worked with the group for years as campus director of public safety. <br> <br> ``That often goes over a lot better with students than hearing it from administrators or parents,&#39;&#39; Boynton said. ``They will listen to fellow students before they listen to anybody.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The organization was created in 1992 by then-student Dana Getzinger and her family in response to a knife attack against her in a Dearing Street apartment complex. <br> <br> The movement quickly gathered momentum after a still-unsolved murder of student Jennifer Stone that year, growing to as many as 100 chapters at different colleges. But now the Athens chapter is believed to be the only one active.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/11/188202