One group of students wants to place the burden of Spring Fling safety on their own shoulders -- or rather, on the back seats of their bicycles.
About 100 students are working together to create emergency medical technician bike teams that would respond to emergency calls during Spring Fling and throughout the year.
College junior Andrew Mener proposed the idea at a University Council meeting last week which focused on Spring Fling safety and recently discussed it with several University administrators.
Mener is working with the Undergraduate Assembly and interested students to propose an organized program that would allow undergraduate EMTs to assist local emergency responders with crises on campus.
College sophomore Adam Novick, a trained EMT who is involved with the proposal, said the student teams would supplement the professional response teams.
"We [would be] an extra layer of support," Novick said.
About 50 trained student EMTs have expressed interest in joining the program.
Because many of these students already volunteer as EMTs for fire departments and first response teams throughout Philadelphia, Mener said the planned Penn program will allow these students to "bring experiences from other areas back to Penn's campus."
Students who are not already certified EMTs would have the opportunity to join the program as well after they complete training for the state-mandated "first response level" of emergency care.
Under the planned proposal, student EMTs would be organized into teams of three that would bike to respond to first-aid crises around campus.
During shifts, student volunteers would sleep in a centrally located dorm, possibly Sansom Place West.
Though the project he conceived three years ago as a freshman, Mener said he hopes to see it finalized this spring.
To work toward this goal, Mener and his team of organizers met with officials from the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life, Housing and Conference Services and the Division of Public Safety last week.
The groups agreed to write a letter to University President Amy Gutmann that will "address how we can move forward towards the implementation," Mener said.
He hopes that University funding will cover the cost of the $200 training sessions necessary to become an EMT for interested students who are not yet certified.
In response, the UA has passed a proposal endorsing the program and has helped the students to "lobby with University officials," said Brett Thalmann, UA external affairs vice chairman.
Penn organizers have also sought outside help from the National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation, which assists over 200 similar student groups at universities like Cornell, Brown and Columbia.
Foundation Secretary Joshua Marks -- who has helped Penn students develop their proposal -- said that on an urban campus like Penn's, student EMTs will likely face more challenges than their peers at suburban and rural schools.
"We have seen almost every problem possible, but there are some that are unique to each school, and we are addressing them at Penn," Marks said.
But Mener said the benefits of the program will be well worth the financial and organizational hassle.
"There is something unbelievably gratifying about being an EMT," he said.
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