A 3.7-mile-long walking path named the ‘Blue Line’ is coming to Georgia State’s campus. Inspired by other popular remodeling projects such as Atlanta’s Beltline and New York’s High Line, the GSU Blue Line aims to unify the downtown campus.
Georgia State University, a known commuter school, is seeking to increase safety on campus in addition to fostering a more traditional college town campus.
According to Georgia State University Magazine, Georgia State University Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer L. Jared Abramson was tasked with unifying Georgia State and making it “feel more like a college town.”
Georgia State has now organized sections of campus into ‘quads.’ They are titled: Piedmont Residential Quad, Central Academic Quad, North Academic Quad, Fairlie-Poplar Quad and Science Sports Quad.
The Blueline’s website lists bios of said “quads” as well as a map shading where each neighborhood exists. The map outlines the walking path and what streets and buildings it follows.
The ‘Blue Line’ is identifiable by blue paint along the ground floor of buildings and trail markers. These trail markers will exhibit a QR code which will take you to the Blue Line website where you can learn more about the path and campus.
Security measures were also put into place. More street lights were installed as well as AI-equipped cameras. These cameras can detect unusual noises and crowds and will also get the attention of a campus police dispatcher.
“We saw that if we could drive activity to the core of our campus, we have a much better chance of our community having a more comfortable, predictable experience,” Abramson said.
The University also proposed a plan to create a pedestrian plaza on Gilmer Street, according to Georgia State University Magazine. They plan to create a ‘Panther Quad’ next to Hurt Park and envision it to be the “beating heart of Atlanta’s campus.”
Madeline Sovereign, a sophomore at Georgia State, said, “I do appreciate the effort they are putting into it to try to make it a safer space for college students.”
But she also felt that it was “pointless.”
“I just feel like the only thing they have done is put up markers along the streets.”
Mya Garfield, a junior at Georgia State, said “It’s the price you pay for going to this school” regarding Georgia State’s campus safety.
“It’s a good way to show that they care about the safety of the students and that they are making efforts to make it more safe,” said Garfield about the Blue Line. “But there is honestly only so much they can do because we are in downtown Atlanta- like you can’t just block off downtown and say it’s the campus for students. It’s in the middle of the city.”
“From what I’ve seen, it’s pretty much just as campus normally was but they just added more cameras and help posts. I guess it’s good at making it seem more safe, but we are on a downtown Atlanta campus, so I don’t know how this will help.”
Elli Heinzelmann, a junior at Georgia State, thinks the intentions behind the Blue Line are “good.”
“I’m not sure how the execution on it will properly work. Increasing pure visibility is not increasing safety on campus. You can’t put these on an equal level. I think they meant well and they are making an effort to improve campus security and campus wellbeing, but I’m not sure how well the project will work.”
Heinzelmann also thinks that unifying the campus may prove to be a more difficult task.
“I think that all the buildings being so far apart makes it so hard to feel unified. I feel like I’m going on a hike to go from class A to class B and knowing that in between [the buildings] is a whole different city or neighborhood, completely different businesses and people, and things that have nothing to do with me as a student or student life is sometimes very shocking or scary.”
Both Garfield and Heinzelmann agree that having more officers patrolling would help with campus safety.
“I would suggest increasing officer availability on campus or having specific spots where you know you will have somebody to talk to because both the GSUPD offices are far away from the main campus,” said Heinzelmann. “So if I ever had an issue I would either have to call or walk there- which I probably wouldn’t do if I had an active issue.”
“I feel like it would be nice to have more patrol out on duty,” said Garfield. “Especially when it’s closer to nighttime.”
