Business students pitch campus safety ideas in honor of Lauren Spierer

Robert and Charlene Spierer were present while students, many of which were still in high school during when the Spierers’ daughter went missing, presented ideas Nov. 14 for keeping Lauren Spierer’s name alive nearly a year and a half after the incident.

Students in professor Susan Vargo’s BUS C-106: Business Presentation honors course paired up with radio station WTTS 92.3 FM to contribute to The Lauren Project, which aims to honor Lauren Spierer and encourage student safety on campus.

“The project itself was pretty open-ended ... students could do anything about that case,” Vargo said.

Ideas generated by student groups included a “Hoosier Buddy” system, which proposed connecting students during their freshman year for the main purpose of looking out for one another during a night out, Vargo said.

Freshman Patrick Holbrook and his group proposed a smartphone application called “The Buddy System,” where users can create a list of friends who could track the user’s location at all times during a night out.

“Our purpose is to change the way people look at taking care of each other,” Holbrook said.

Officials in charge of campus security and safety issues at IU also listened as students presented their ideas to increase safety on campus. Vargo said many of the proposed ideas could move forward to production.
Vargo also said the Spierers were pleased with the safety ideas developed by students.
“They were unbelievably impressed by the honesty with which students faced the issues,” she said.

— Kirsten Clark