No bike rental program, IUSA says

The IUSA bike rental program, a platform initiative for at least the last two IUSA administrations, will not be implemented before the end of iUnity’s term, IUSA Chief of Staff Neil Kelty said.

The program was also proposed by the Btown IUSA ticket during the 2009 election.

The program plan involved purchasing a fleet of bikes that could be rented at one location, ridden through campus and returned at the same or a different location.
Kelty said a bike rental program exists at the University of Minnesota, but the structure is different from that of Btown’s or iUnity’s plan.

After the Btown ticket failed to fully implement the plan during its one year term, the iUnity ticket adopted the program.

The iUnity ticket then established a bike initiative task force to address the project.
Kelty said the earliest the program could come to campus would be summer 2011.

However, a pilot program could start this spring with the company IUSA has chosen to bring “a few bikes on campus to show around.”

IUSA elections, which take place in March, will bring a new administration taking office in April, but Kelty said there should be retention from year to year between administrations.

“It is important to have students who are in this organization for four or five years because it is really hard to get things done in this University,” Kelty said.

IUSA Vice President for Administration Peter SerVaas, who served as the  Btown administration’s president, was the first to attempt to implement the bike initiative.

SerVaas said platform initiatives touted during the IUSA election — including programs such as the bike rental program — should not be viewed as promises.

“That’s not a guarantee to get it done in one year,” SerVaas said. “That’s a guarantee to work their hardest to get it done.”

IUSA platforms have recently involved major initiatives, such as fall break, bus tracking and bringing down the textbook costs.

Kelty said the startup budget for the bike rental program currently stands at $60,000, which is not part of IUSA’s current budget and will have to be approved by congress before the funds can be used.

Much of the funding for the program will come from money left over from last year’s budget cuts, Kelty said.

Kelty said about 80 percent of that money will be spent on the bikes themselves, which will cost about $1,000 each.

The program will be student-run, Kelty said, with students managing the service similarly to a work-study program.

“The best thing we’re really happy about with this program is that it should be self-sustainable,” Kelty said.

After startup costs, Kelty said he hopes the program will be billable as a subscription fee to students through the bursar.

According to a press release in September, IUSA has received permission from the Department of Transportation to put seven to 10 bike stand locations on campus, which have yet to be determined.

“We’re not certain as to how many locations we are going to have, but we’re thinking between seven to 10,” Eshaan Arora, IUSA co-chief of bike rental, said in a press release.