MSU is the only Big Ten school without a safe ride program to provide students with free, late night transportation to and from campus, one ASMSU official said. But currently, he’s working to change that.
Greg Jackson, ASMSU’s vice president for finance and operations, said the safe ride program at MSU would provide a service for students living far from campus, such as The Lodges and Chandler Crossings, to assist them in getting to and from campus late at night.
“Students who live in The Lodges have a really hard time even getting to the library — or students who live in Chandler (Crossing) — it’s difficult for those people without cars to move to and from campus conveniently and safely,” Jackson said.
Sudents who live in these areas, like packaging sophomore Riley McCarthy, face that reality every day.
“The struggle is in getting to extracurricular activities at night, whether it’s an IM game or studying at the library,” said McCarthy, who lives at The Lodges.
While some do have cars, finance sophomore Katelyn Gitzen, who also lives at The Lodges, said parking on campus has become a hassle.
“I have a car, but I would still use a free ride service because there is nowhere to park on campus without getting a ticket,” Gitzen said.
Although The Lodges does offer its own buses to campus, the times the routes run often render students incapable of getting to campus in the evening.
The safe ride program is something ASMSU has struggled to bring to fruition due to a lack of communication between former ASMSU vice presidents and the university, Jackson said.
Jackson is now confident that the safe ride program will be implemented at MSU after progressing talks with Uber, an app-based transportation company based out of San Diego.
“We have a lot of support and have developed a really good proposal and strategy which tries to mitigate a lot of the risks which the administration is most worried about,” Jackson said. “We’ve grown significantly since we first started talking to Uber and it’s now much more feasible and viable.”
The safe ride program’s fate at MSU will be discussed in a few weeks at ASMSU’s finance committee meeting. Members will discuss the program and ways in which it can be funded by ASMSU. Jackson said there are no plans of increasing the student tax to pay for this program.
Although it exists in some capacity throughout other Big Ten schools, options differ from campus to campus. Some universities offer safe ride programs to help inebriated students get home at night, while others provide the service simply for students who may face long distances to campus and back.
One goal of the safe ride program is for it to be usable by the time students step on campus in August of next year, Jackson said. If the program were active by then, students in the East Lansing area would be able to call Uber, request a ride, and ASMSU would pay for it.
Jackson said he hopes to meet with President Lou Anna K. Simon this month to discuss the program and methods of proper implementation.
