Proposed bus plan would require hike in student fees

If an increase in the student transportation fee is approved, the frustration many students feel from the overcrowding on the IU Campus Bus Service could be no more. The Student Transportation Advisory Committee met last week with members of IU Transportation Services to finalize a proposal for a new bus route called the “U” route. The Student Transportation Advisory Committee is made up of students chosen by Dean of Students Dick McKaig to represent different areas on campus, said sophomore and Student Transportation Advisory Committee member Adam Pozza.\nThe route was developed by the advisory committee in coordination with Campus Bus Service, said junior and Student Transportation Advisory Committee chairman Ray Vanlanot. The original route was proposed by a student bus driver, and the idea eventually made its way to Campus Bus Service Operations Manager Perry Maull, who previously discussed the addition of a new bus route. Maull contacted Vanlanot and told him about it.\n“Some alterations were made to the route, and that’s how the final draft of the proposal was made,” Vanlanot said.\nThe issue of naming the route came up at a meeting when Pozza was trying to understand the proposed route and what it would look like.\n“I was a little confused, and then I realized the route was going to be shaped in a ‘U,’” Pozza said.\nSince that meeting, it has been referred to as the “U” route.\nPozza said members of the committee noticed a lot of buses with full loads passing students on the first part of Fee Lane by Briscoe and McNutt quads. Many of the students waiting for buses outside those resident halls needed to get to Rawles Hall and Jordan Hall on Third Street for 100-level math and science courses, Pozza said. \n“The buses seemed to be unloading the majority of their passengers at the business school and the library,” Pozza said.\nBuses on the proposed route would start in the Assembly Hall White Lot, go to the area around the Herman B Wells Library and then up the North Jordan Avenue extension. It will then turn around and backtrack through the route, said Kent McDaniel, IU executive director of transportation services. \nThe new route can’t be added this year. However, if Campus Bus gets enough funding, they would like to try it next year, McDaniel said. \nIn March, the Student Transportation Advisory Committee will make the proposal to the Committee for Fee Review, a student committee that makes recommendations to University trustees about how much students should be charged for mandatory fees, McDaniel said.