IUSA adds late night transportation for students

As the first official action of their term, the new IU Student Association administration will be providing students with rides Friday evening from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. The initiative was proposed as a way to promote safety and curb student arrests linked with alcohol consumption during Little 500 weekend while promoting the issue of night busing, one of the new IUSA administration's principal concerns. \n"It's a big issue," Student Body President Casey Cox said. "Anytime we have promoted making the campus and students safer, all the feedback we have received has been positive. That's why we have become very concerned about safety, and we will support any effort to curb drinking and driving while helping students to avoid unnecessary arrests."\nStudents in need of a ride Friday evening should look for white transportation vans driving on Walnut Street and Kirkwood and Jordan Avenues. The buses will drive students to locations both on and off campus.\n"Students celebrating Little 500 should not be penalized for walking home," IUSA Health and Safety Director Jonathan Deck said in a statement. "That's why we are stepping in to provide safe late-night transportation."\nNight busing, termed the "drunk buses" by Cox, has existed on campus sporadically for a number of semesters. However, he said students would benefit from increased exposure to night busing.\n"Most students don't know about the drunk buses, but it could be immensely popular," he said.\nIUSA Congressional Secretary Alan Grant is leading the initiative to change the night busing system. Along with increasing promotions about night busing, he hopes to make a number of changes to the current system, he said. \n"The whole intent of giving rides on Friday is to make students aware that they have this service available to them," Grant said. "There's simply not enough late night transportation on campus. We need better routes, more buses and increased awareness for alternatives to walking or driving drunk."\nIncluded in their summer expansion plans are an increase in the number of vehicles, the utilization of the large IU buses in addition to the smaller Bloomington shuttles and providing a broader range of transportation to off-campus locations.\n"I would like to see at least a double in the number of rides given by drunk buses by this time next year," Grant said.\nCox and Grant have already started their efforts to change night busing. In addition to contacting the Bloomington motor pool to discuss the availability of transportation, they have had discussions with the IU and Bloomington police departments and IU administration officials to enlist their support.\n"We're just doing everything we can to keep students safe and keep them out of jail," Cox said.