They're the thin gold line

During the fall 1993 semester, a program began to provide escort services for students who have to walk through campus at night. Today, that program is thriving.

Since its start, the number of students using the service has jumped from 583 escorts in February 1994 to 13,000 escorts last spring.

This semester the escorts, who work under the auspices of Public Safety and are called Community Service

Officers, estimate that the number will increase to increase 20,000 escorts. The CSO escort service is available from 6:30 p.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday, and from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

Using the program, a student may be escorted to his or her car or dormitory room by a CSO escort by way of van, cart, car, bike, or on foot. If needed, the drivers in vans will take students to their apartments or parked cars within a half mile perimeter of the university. "The CSO students like foot patrol because they get a good interaction with the population,"said CSO Coordinator Sgt. Bonnie Myers. "The officer gets to talk to students while they are walking."

To use the service, a student may use any of the emergency orange-boxed, or blue-lighted telephones. Pay phones can also be used by calling the University Police at (310) 985-4101. The waiting time is kept at a minimum, Myers said.

The program does not take reservations due to the high demand of escorts desired. "With 25 people out there, you should be able to go anywhere on this campus and find someone in a gold shirt," Myers said.

CSO personnel are dressed in bright gold shirts labeled "University Police"in front and "Community Service Officer" on back. Each student has a police photo identification badge and carries a police hand-held radio.

All 25 CSO's are Cal State Long Beach students with diverse ages, ethnic backgrounds and majors.

"One of the things I've tried to do is to have the program be a reflection of what the university community is,"

Myers said.

The officers who are selected experience in-house training, which includes procedural guidelines, defense tactics, report writing and CPR training.

It is recommended that students who are interested in becoming escorts apply for the position a semester before they would like to start, Myers said.

"At least 10 out of the 13 heard about the job through word of mouth and applied for a position during the semester before," Myers said, so the number of openings is very limited. The officers' shifts begin at 6 p.m. with a briefing and then they are sent to their designated areas until their shifts end sometime between 10 p.m. and midnight.

"I like working at night," said Matt Zabrocki, a two year veteran of the program. "Most of my classes are during the day, but I have a couple of night classes and they are very flexible. They work around your schedule."

The CSO program not only provides escorts to students, but also does emergency-telephone checks and light checks around all the buildings and parking lots.

"I always considered the campus safe as it was and then coming in here and seeing what actually goes into keeping it that way was neat," said Christa Ayuso, who has been a CSO escort for more than two years.

The program has proved to be beneficial, Ayuso said.

"It's definitely helpful to the students if they take advantage of it," she said. "It keeps the students, especially the females, feeling secure about being on campus at night."