Stranded in Oakland late at night, and have no way to get back to the Shadyside Campus? Chatham students have the ability to use the University of Pittsburgh SafeRider program.

How to use the SafeRider

SafeRider allows students, faculty and staff to call for transportation between the hours of 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. daily

Call 412-648-2255 and provide your name, pick-up location, destination, number of guests, maximum of two non-University guests. 

The SafeRider program will not pick students up if they are on an established bus route when buses are still running, help with meal-runs and shopping or pick-ups from establishments that sell alcohol. There is a set boundary that the SafeRider will pick people up from.

Students will be unable to use the SafeRider during the University of Pittsburgh’s Thanksgiving break, Nov. 20-27; winter recess, Dec. 18-Jan. 8, 2023; and spring break, March 5-12, 2023. 

This does not cost anything for students to use, but there is a limit of one use per day, and 25 per term.

Rides from campus security

Chief of Police Donna Grossi addressed students during orientation about their ability to contact public safety if they were off-campus and felt unsafe. This has led to students and public safety officers misunderstanding what being “unsafe” means.

Tori Wojciechowski ‘26 and her friends found themselves stuck off-campus with a 40-minute wait untill the next bus came. 

“We were in an area that was unsafe and that the next bus wasn’t coming for 40 minutes and then the bus we were supposed to take didn’t show up,” Wojciechowski said.

Once public safety arrived, she recalled the officer being “very intimidating” and blaming the girls being stranded on them. 

“He also said that if we don’t have a plan to get back to campus, we just shouldn’t leave campus,” Wojciechowski said. “He also told us that since we were in a group before we should have felt safe and that like nothing was going to happen to us since we were in a group.”

While the students filed a complaint, they just want students to be able to get back to campus and feel safe about it.

“I work with the understanding that safety doesn’t look the same to everyone and realize that my message can mean different things to different people,” Chief Grossi said. “Officers have historically been able to assist via phone to guide students, provide information for buses or other transportation, or connect the individuals with other local police departments if the individual is off campus.”

With the limited resources of campus security at night, Chief Grossi is trying to create more ways for students to return to campus safely.

“I’m currently working with the office of Residence Life to establish transportation protocols, which will include resources for students to utilize if my department is unable to transport, such as Lyft, Uber, etc.”

There was a report of a Chatham student denied access to the SafeRider program earlier in the fall 2022 term. Chief Grossi assures the community that this has been addressed with the University of Pittsburgh Department of Transportaion, and the Chatham community is able to use this service.