By Cheyene Miller

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UK Student Government Association president Jake Ingram campaigned for his position last year and promised to promote a phone safety application called LifeLine Response EDU.

Ingram and the student government association are looking to implement a phone safety application for UK students, but do not yet know what particular app will be used.

Ingram said that universities like Louisiana State University and the University of Florida, as well as possibly hundreds more nationwide, are jumping on board with these phone safety applications, which work similarly to the emergency towers around campus.  This influenced Ingram and the student government to begin developing UK’s very own phone safety application back in June.

“Last year as vice president of student government association, the number one concern that I heard from students was about off-campus safety,” said Ingram, who noted that UK is ranked in the top five for safest universities by Reader’s Digest. He said that action could be taken to improve off-campus safety.

“Off-campus, however, is where the vast majority of students live,” Ingram said.

UK is currently in the request for proposal process, in which vendors who provide the application bid for the contract work with the university.  Ingram and the student government hope to have this process completed sometime this semester, and have the program implemented by spring at the latest.

Students can input certain information into the system, such as height, weight and a photo. When in need of immediate emergency assistance, students can notify police through the application, and emergency responders will be able to react even faster than 911 calls.

In addition to the emergency notification, GPS location and profile information, the applications also include features like tip reporting, custom branding and emergency information.

Ingram said SGA has $25,000 set aside for the application. The funds pulled from the student government budget, which itself is funded by student fees, are intended to go towards UK’s overall safety development.  Ingram said that this will not cause an increase in student fees, and that his long-term goal is to have the university adopt the policy so that it is no longer a student government expenditure.

Tyler Rowe, a biochemistry freshman, says the safety application is a good idea that could provide safety for all students.

“It’s fast, and it’s easy to get to in case you’re in a predicament where you need it,” Rowe said.  “Preferably it’ll help people off campus because it’s a bit safer on campus, but I believe it’s a very good idea for now.”

Fellow freshman Parker Thomas agreed, and said that the application “would be really helpful to a lot of people around campus.”