We were warned.
Campus bus route changes were announced well in advance, and months-old Indiana Daily Student articles prove that.
But summer is long, hot and memory-erasing, leaving us to sit impatiently at the bus stop hurt, lost and confused.
The IU Campus Bus Service D Route is no longer. Campus Bus Service has axed the D bus, adding some of its stops to the E bus route.
The new route still services Forest Quad and Willkie Residence Center, though somewhat inefficiently.
Heading home from the library, for example, there is no stop directly in front of those dorms unless a weary traveler rides to Evermann apartments as the route restarts.
In servicing Forest and Willkie, the E route has lost stops cutting through campus, making it harder for students living in Ashton Center and Teter Quad to get around. The Neal-Marshall Center stop has also been discontinued.
Gone from our streets, the D bus remains in our hearts. We imagine many other students feel the same way, especially when buses flashing “FULL” continue past their stops.
One disgruntled IDS editorial board member reports having been skipped over by as many as four buses before one with available space allowed her to board.
The inefficiency, the overcrowding, the frustrated students and staff — we’re sure they were all considered before the D bus was tossed aside.
After all, the sum total of the change is expected to be $38,000 savings in Campus Bus Service’s budget.
Whether or not $38,000 more in the bank is worth a tremendous decline in service quality remains to be seen, especially since this decline might not seem so tremendous in a month or two.
But what is particularly irksome is that these changes, along with many others on campus last week, came with little-to-no warning as students returned to campus.
Of course IU did mention something about the bus schedule change a few months ago, but a reminder would have been nice.
There are students who are on campus for the first time, and some students were abroad when initial changes were announced, or perhaps didn’t use the campus bus system before.
Regardless, summers spent away from campus are an easy way to forget.
Arboretum construction was another surprise, mainly for those of us who got trapped within a maze of fences on the first day of classes.
These are the sort of changes students would appreciate hearing about ahead of time — before we are waiting for the bus, before we are trying to walk from the Kelley School of Business to Ballantine.
The lack of transparency on these issues — simple logistical issues — leaves little faith for the more complex issues with which students often struggle.
We can’t hope to understand the larger and more pressing issues if IU can barely guarantee that we know which bus goes where.
Students have a responsibility to know what is happening at their university.
Universities have a responsibility to share information with students. Let’s both do better.
