Since his days in high school, JW Dobbe always had a deep involvement in the community, and he has carried that interest into his college career.

Dobbe, a sophomore business administration management major, is the commissioner of community affairs for the Associated Students.

He first took an interest in community issues during his junior year in high school. His father played a major role in his hometown community by being a part of the rotary club and the chamber of commerce.

Dobbe was influenced by his father’s community involvement and decided to run for the position as a freshman.

“It was a little intimidating,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I was going to have a strong chance against people that have been here for a year or two.”

Some of his responsibilities include sitting in on advisory meetings with the city, the police committee advisory board and the transportation advisory board.

This semester, his biggest project involves the community affairs council, which was created last semester.

The community affairs council is a student forum where students to discuss community issues.

Dobbe also wants to improve safety throughout the community before Halloween weekend by instituting a moonlight safety walk downtown. The downtown safety walk would be similar to the after-hours walk on campus conducted by university police, but it would survey areas beyond the university.

During Chico State’s moonlight safety walks, a group of student volunteers walk around the university and note any safety concerns so they can be addressed.

“Hopefully before Halloween, we’re going to do a walk downtown and make sure that anything that’s not working or is a safety hazard to students or other community members, we note it down and report that to the general services of the community,” Dobbe said.

Another priority for the semester is spending a $5,000 student safety fund that was passed last year by the previous commissioner of community affairs.

“I want to make sure that my council hopefully comes up with tangible ideas of how we can spend that money  effectively,” he said.

If the money isn’t spent, it gets washed away into the reserves and is no longer funded annually.

The money can be spent on anything regarding student safety, so it’s very broad, Dobbe said.

Students can join the discussion about how the student safety fund should be spent at the first meeting on Oct. 7 in BMU 205 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Sharon Martin can be reached at [email protected] or @SharonBMartin.