It”s cold, it”s late, you”ve been drinking – there”s any number of reasons to want to catch a free cab. That”s why ASUI President-elect Austin Karstetter said he is working to implement the Vandal Shuttle program.
Vandal Shuttle was one of Karstetter”s platform points during the recent ASUI elections that he said he would like to see through to the end, however he said nothing is set in stone yet.
Right now Karstetter said he is evaluating ASUI programs to see where they can reallocate funds for Vandal Shuttle.
“I think it”s going to (be) about $8,000 to $10,000 a year to fund the program,” Karstetter said. “We don”t want to be the sole funder of it so we are going to look to administrators and the city of Moscow to see if they would contribute as well.”
He said the shuttle would operate through a non-profit organization called Smart Transit from October to April next school year and would available to students 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. on the weekends. Karstetter said the shuttle would likely stop every 30 minutes in locations such as downtown Moscow, Winco, The Grove and two locations on campus.
Karstetter said he is still working out the details of the program, but has gotten a lot of helpful information from former ASUI Sen. Aran Burke, who coordinated a trial run of the program in January 2016.
Burke passed a bill to get funding, which totaled $720, from the ASUI senate budget to fund the test run. Burke said he worked with a company called College Cabs to set up the trial run the weekend after winter break.
“I would say the trial run was a huge success, although we could have done more advertising, but even with that we had around 100 people we gave rides to,” Burke said. “About 60 of those people filled out surveys about how they felt about the program and every single one of them said it should be implemented every weekend.”
The trial run shuttle ran from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. on the Friday and Saturday after winter break, Burke said. He said eventually he would like to see the program expanded to have a shuttle running between Moscow and Pullman.
Karstetter said he is still working with administrators on the details and plans to meet with UI Provost John Wiencek May 2 to present his plan. If Wiencek approves his plan, Karstetter said he will then meet with the UI General Counsel to ensure liabilities are covered. Once the Counsel gives Karstetter the go-ahead, he said they can begin implementing Vandal Shuttle.
As for funding, Karstetter said he is looking at multiple areas within the ASUI budget to reallocate funds, one of these being the money that goes toward the New York Times.
“As it stands now we pay $14,000 a year for the New York Times and what frustrates me about the New York Times is that a lot of faculty and staff use it and students are the ones paying for it,” Karstetter said. “So what we are looking to do is not entirely get rid of the New York Times but we want to cut it in half and save that $7,000 dollars.”
He said many students are unaware the New York Times provides UI with online copies, which is easy to access and would cut costs.
“I think right now students would rather have a physical thing that can get them around the community on the weekend than to read a paper they can get online,” Karstetter said.
Funding for the program is still up in the air, Karstetter said, but there are still many options ASUI can explore, such as tapping into the senate budget, director”s budget or general reserve. However, he said he would rather reallocate funds from ASUI programs that aren”t as successful.
“I haven”t totally taken office so I”m going to be working with (current ASUI President Max Cowan) on the budget that will be presented to the senate and come up with those funds,” Karstetter said. “Either way, whether it”s for three months or the whole year we are going to get Vandal Shuttle going because it is one of our platform points we want to make sure we follow through with.”
Jessica Gee can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JessicaC_Gee