The initial project that I submitted to the Millennium Fellowship Program was about the infrastructure around Salisbury University and how I can encourage more use of bikes and create safe bike lanes for people who lack vehicles as transportation. After I transferred to University at Albany, I came to realize that this university campus has more transportation options than Salisbury University. CDTA buses are free for all students with a Student ID and there are bike rental spots on campus. This campus had better transportation options and higher accessibility to places. However, it is still not yet enough because the campus is in a more urban area than Salisbury university, and the students are in a more dangerous situation when they are coming home from campus at night. Riding a bike is not as safe as getting an Uber downtown where gun shootings have occurred twice this semester. After joining the Student Association, my aim was to raise awareness of campus and off-campus safety for students and how the transportation around the campus be better. There were many concerns from students who live off campus near downtown due to the lack of streetlights. It was said that there should be more streetlights and more police officers in charge whenever there were events for students such as Halloween. This semester, the Student Association has worked hard to bring more security to the campus and our students.
My project shifted as the security of the students became a more important issue and I decided to research the security around the campus and how transportation can support better security. It was hands-on and direct research throughout my meetings at Student Association and local University Police officers coming in at those meetings.