Who are the University Ambassadors and what do they do?

Rob Savage has a confident demeanor and a soft way of looking at you that makes you feel at ease.

He’s one of those Ambassadors in the bright yellow vests who stand under the train tracks or on the sketchy curve on Chancellor, whose jobs are somewhat ambiguous to us.

The Ambassador program started in January 2015, following the sequence of events in the fall of 2014 which led us to feeling more unsafe than usual in Charlottesville.

In reaction to this, the university screened a number of security officers and stationed them in the areas around grounds which are most populated with students who could be at risk. The mission of the program, Savage explains, is two-fold: Public safety, and student awareness.

“We do escorts, so if you guys are coming from the library late at night, or on the corner, or you just feel unsafe or insecure, the Ambassador will escort you to your apartment. Or we call safe-ride for you.”

The intent of these officers is also to serve as a liaison between the students and police officers. No drunken 19-year-old girl stumbling down the corner alone is going to want to ask a police officer for a ride home.

So these unarmed security officers are only there to bring you to safety, or to make sure you get there by some other means.

And although for the majority of us, it appears the Ambassadors don’t do much except hang out under the train tracks, the stories Savage has to tell demonstrate just how much this program is working.

Just a few months ago, a group of Ambassadors found two girls on the corner: “They were extremely intoxicated. They were able to get the emergency help they needed… quickly and responsibly… and got their stomachs pumped.”

It is easy to leave Trinity at 2am feeling fairly safe about the walk back to Greenhouse – a walk you do many times a day.

But at those times when you aren’t so confident, find Savage or another Ambassador and get home safely.