An ASU doctoral alumnus is assembling a crowdsourced safety guide geared toward the Chinese international student community.
The graduate, "Tiger" Hu Duan, said he had an idea for the guide for a while, but the recent road-rage shooting of ASU Chinese international student Yue Jiang earlier this month spurred him into action.
"It was a sudden decision," he said. "But if there was a reason, it was (hearing about the shooting) by my school."
Duan said he and the victim of the shooting didn't know each other, but that the incident still inspired his creation of the safety guide. The guide was first intended to help his own family stay safe, but then expanded to address the Chinese community, the international student community, the student body as a whole and beyond.
He said he hopes the guide can start a dialogue between different institutions so the efforts of students and experts can be incorporated.
The guide, which takes form as a Google Doc, is open for anyone to edit.
It is mostly in Chinese, but it's in the midst of being translated. It includes several tips to help survive violent situations, administer first-aid, find medical facilities and deal with traffic accidents, among others.
The document also contains an account of the road rage incident that motivated the creation of the guide.
Duan said he thinks of it as "open-source" because he believes the amount of contributors to the document reaches the hundreds.
He also received input from the ASU and Tempe police departments, worked with the Coalition for International Students at ASU to help translate the guide and went to the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles to speak about the guide and road rage shooting with officials.
He said he received a very positive response from all parties involved.
ASU PD public relations officer Nicole Franks wrote in an email that ASU PD is happy to provide input and support to Duan.
She wrote that ASU PD frequently does this kind of outreach.
"ASU PD’s crime prevention unit ... routinely plays host to informational sessions and orientations on safety for the ASU community," she wrote. "Our officers have worked with international students before and last October we hosted an informational session with the ASU Coalition of International Students."
In her email, she pointed to several resources students can use to stay safe, including the safety escort service, the blue-light emergency call boxes and the LiveSafe app.
Duan has received perhaps the most extensive official collaboration from Tempe PD.
Tempe police commander Noah Johnson said Duan recently sat down with Tempe PD to discuss the document and the potential for social media engagement and getting other students involved.
Johnson met Duan at the candlelight vigil for the deceased Chinese student, where he offered the help of Tempe PD and began the relationship between the two.
"They can go onto the Tempe PD website, and there's crime mapping, so we showed them the website and how they can look at crime in their area," he said. "It was some basic crime prevention stuff."
However, he said the real benefit of the meeting will be kicking off a working relationship with the Chinese international student community and Tempe PD.
He said he hopes the relationship will build and continue, and that similar connections develop with other groups.
"I've been very impressed with the Chinese international student population as to how organized they are, how they take care of each other and how they have a true investment, even in our community, to know the rules and the laws and be respectful of us," he said. "It was heartwarming, frankly. It's very impressive how they take care of each other. I've never seen, frankly, any community act that way."
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Reach the reporter at Arren.Kimbel-Sannit@asu.edu or follow @akimbelsannit on Twitter.
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