Students who call NightWalk later in the evening may not be accommodated as they once were. Because of overtime and budget issues, the program which offers students an escort to accompany them home, has had to make some changes.

The program employs security guards as walking escorts for students within a 1-mile radius of campus and runs from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Last year, calls from students were taken throughout this time frame. The later the program received the calls, the later the guards were on the clock. On the busiest nights, they wouldn’t finish transporting students until 3 a.m.

“It was cost,” said Ralph Robinson, special events lieutenant for the UW Police Department (UWPD). “Obviously, it cost us more to run the program longer than the exact time, and that overtime is time-and-a-half because these guards are full-time employees.”

In spring quarter, to avoid the extra cost of this overtime, the guards stopped accepting requests from students at whatever time was necessary for them to clock out at 2:30 a.m. The cut-off time varies depending on how many students call in a night, but NightWalk security guard Henry Balanon believes the earliest he has had to refuse calls is 1:20 a.m.

“I would say probably two to three times a week we’d cut off people, especially during midterms,” Balanon said in reference spring quarter.

The NightWalk program began in 2007 after a campus shooting, and its budget comes from the central funding for the university. That funding saw a 7-percent cut this year. The allotted budget for the 2009-2011 biennium is $305,144, and UWPD Assistant Director Gayle Gray said the change in the program is to help ensure that the funding lasts through the end of the term.

“We receive funding from the central budget, but it’s a fixed amount, so we have to make it last for the biennium,” Gray said. “If you run out of money a year and a half into the biennium, you have to cut the program.”

Some students who utilize the program on a regular basis could be affected on nights the service ends before 2 a.m.

“A couple of times last year, I called really close to 2 a.m. and still got a ride home,” said senior Claire Moberg, who uses the program to study late at the library during the week.

However, Balanon said, this quarter has not been as hectic as in the spring. He estimates that they have been receiving 20 to 30 calls a night, compared to 70 calls on the busier nights of spring quarter.

“If things work out as it’s working right now, it shouldn’t be a problem,” he said.

It’s uncertain how busy NightWalk will be for the remainder of the year, as different factors influence the ridership of the program on a seasonal and nightly basis.

“A lot of the fluctuation seems to be based on the weather,” Robinson said. “When it’s cold, we have a tendency to get more calls.”

Robinson said that the increase in timely warning-notification e-mails regarding crime in the U-District last January paralleled an increase in student calls for walking escorts.

“We encourage everyone to call us as early as they can if they’re concerned about getting home safely,” Balanon said.

Reach reporter Lexie Krell at news@dailyuw.com.