IUSA controversy: Bus tracker pride

“IUSA never does anything.” “IUSA is a joke.” I’ve heard and do agree with statements similar to these when looking back on some years of IUSA’s 63-year history.

As a freshman, I told myself that I did not want to be involved in an organization that lived up to that reputation. I observed improvements in IUSA my sophomore year. With a great group of students, the operating budget, which was historically 100 percent devoted to operating IUSA, was slashed.

IUSA was able to create a small fund within the operating budget to pursue new projects and services for students.  

Fortunately, Ilya Rekhter and a group of transportation students aggressively pursued new options with Executive Director of Transportation Kent McDaniel and IU Bus Operator Perry Maull.

In one year, IUSA drove the addition of Zipcar, Zimride and the IUSA Doublemap Bus Tracker. Because of IUSA’s success, IU’s Transportation Department said they would have to redo the freshman orientation guide to transportation at IU.

The process was not easy, but I watched Rekhter convince the IUSA Congress and IU Transportation Department that he could create a basic bus tracking system for less than the market price of $100,000. Rekhter explained to IUSA Congress that if he failed, then IUSA would receive as much of the initial allocation as possible when the purchased parts and system were resold.

He created a team from around the campus and around the world. Success was slow, but Rekhter and his team worked diligently. When Rekhter realized he had underestimated the cost of the project, he turned to the IU Idea Competition for funds rather than ask for a second allocation from IUSA.

He signed up and submitted a hypothetical business idea of taking GPS systems to colleges for free and paying for them through advertising.

When one of his teammates realized he couldn’t make the presentation shortly before the final presentation, I was honored to fill in for the teammate after that group did two months of hard work and preparation.

The team edited the business plan as well as the presentation to include me, and we won. Rekhter had told the entire team that all of the winnings, $4,000, from the business plan competition would be donated to finishing the IU system. With the new cash and Rekhter’s continued drive, he was able to get a system up and running on a map.  

University Information Technology Services, which worked with Rekhter on the original iPhone application development, had created an IU Mobile iPhone application for all IU campuses.

They were interested in deploying the “Livearrive” system, the original nickname for the system and business plan, to other IU campuses through the UITS IU Mobile application.

I was asked to explain the development at IU Bloomington to IUPUI. After I met with IUPUI and provided the timeline of the system’s development, they reached out to later meet with Rekhter for a technical explanation of what he accomplished. IUPUI transportation recognized that the “Livearrive” system was basic, and IUPUI decided that UITS shouldn’t pursue implementing IU’s “Livearrive” system on IU Mobile for IUPUI because it was too basic and unreliable.

With that being said, I love to boast to IU students, other student governments and anyone who will listen about the system along with IUSA’s other recent accomplishments. Today, IUSA owns all parts that it purchased with the original $3,000 and $15,000 allocations. In my mind, Rekhter built the equivalent to a car for IUSA, and he has now handed the keys and the car to IUSA. If you, as an IU student, don’t support the system or the way IUSA built it, then tell your IUSA Congressmen to kill the system.  

Peter SerVaas
is the current IUSA vice president of administration and former student body president.