IUSA continues project plans during summer

Behind a number of projects and additions to the IU campus are members of the IU Student Association, with project ideas stemming from IU students and carried out by the all-student administration.

“Most of the time, a project starts when a kid e-mails in to me and says, ‘Hey, what about this?’” IUSA Chief of Staff Neil Kelty said. “I’ll look into it and jot down some thoughts, and then I take it to the rest of our leadership team.”

While many of the organization’s projects are implemented during the school year, IUSA members continue planning into the summer.

This year, the group is working on several projects, including a GPS for buses, the implementation of more crosswalks on campus and a new website, http://iuoffcampus.com.

With the string of car accidents on campus in the past year, including the death of sophomore Peter Duong in September, the administration feels more crosswalks are necessary around campus. 

Two crosswalks were installed on Fee Lane during spring break at the recommendation of the Campus Safety Task Force created in September 2009, IUSA President Michael Coleman said.

“After last year’s tragic accident and the other accidents involving injuries, it was time to do something about pedestrian traffic on campus,” Kelty said.

IUSA has also been working to improve the campus bus system by implementing a GPS for the campus buses to ease student use.

Former IUSA Chief of Transportation Initiatives Ilya Rekhter spoke with IU Transportation Director Kent McDaniel concerning the system.

“I told him that I would run the idea by the executive members, organize a team around the project and hopefully develop an affordable system in-house,” Rekhter said. “I later had (the IUSA) Congress approve a budget for the project and am on track to launch the service by the beginning of this upcoming school semester.”

The GPS would include trackers in all campus buses so students can monitor campus bus movement online and from mobile devices. Tracking monitors would also be installed in the Herman B Wells Library and the Indiana Memorial Union so students could see exactly when their bus would arrive.

In addition to helping students on campus, IUSA is also working to benefit students living off campus. Its new website will inform students who live off campus of events and happenings taking place on campus.

“We’re trying to make the University show that we cater to students that are off campus, because students that live off campus just don’t know a lot of what is happening on campus, whether they are on campus for a lot or a little bit,” Coleman said.