The safety walk hosted attendees from numerous areas on campus, such as housing, facilities, event management, and more.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Sullivan
By Julia Ferrara
Staff, faculty and even students got a say in what should be improved for campus on Feb. 19.
Thirty people from various campus departments, including several students gathered to conduct the annual University of South Florida St. Petersburg Night Safety Walk.
Attendees were split up into several groups and given charts to collect data on areas around campus that need attention. They were asked to look for things like uneven sidewalks, overgrown foliage, exposed wires, lighting issues and anything else that could pose a risk to staff and students.
Non-functioning or lack of lightning was one of the biggest issues noted by participants of this event.
Photo by Julia Ferrara | The Crow’s Nest
The event ran for almost two hours and revealed several dozen concerns.
David Hendry, the regional chief of police for USF St. Petersburg, said the walk has been held for over a decade and serves as an opportunity to find any safety deficiencies that need to be improved on.
“Our facilities department addresses each of the issues one by one and that’s one of the many ways that we keep our campus safe,” Hendry said. “The facilities folks stay so busy sometimes that they may not see something [safety concern], so this safety walk is very helpful in terms of pointing those things out.”
Having participants from various areas of the university allowed for more comprehensive findings. Photo by Julia Ferrara | The Crow’s Nest
Hendry added that the event facilitators try to get participants from various areas around campus. “Everybody looks at things differently and so you get those various viewpoints,” Hendry said.
Kevin Sullivan, the campus emergency manager, said that event is crucial to preserving campus safety.
“It’s a need that the campus had to be aware of safety and security, and it’s really important to bring in a diverse group,” Sullivan said. “It’s not just the faculty, staff, police or housing, it’s the student divisions too, so that we hear all the different perspectives.”
Outside of the event, students can report a safety concern on campus by going to the facilities website and submitting a work order.
Sullivan also mentioned the aftermath of the two hurricanes in 2024 and the isues that arose then.
“There’s been a significant effort over the last year to improve and repair the lighting,” said Sullivan said. “There’s still work to be done, and so what we’ll do is we’ll take all the data we collect, we’ll put in work orders for things that are USF’s responsibility, that way there’s tracking and accountability.”
Erin McFee, the assistant director for event services, said that the walk has resulted in evident improvements to campus safety.
“I was on the safety walk last year and I noticed that a lot of the things we wrote down were fixed; sidewalks looked amazing, lighting is worlds betters,” McFee said. “I’m very pleased with the progress.”
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Written by: Julia Ferrara on March 3, 2026.