Students now will have a free ride at night to get anywhere on campus.

The Residence Halls Association is funding the Capital Area Transportation Authority's Night Owl service in an effort to keep students from walking alone at night.

The service picks up and drops off students anywhere on campus between 2 a.m.-7 a.m. weekdays, and 2 a.m.-9 a.m. on weekends. Buses arrive within 20 minutes to pick up students after they call the service phone number.

At a meeting between RHA, university officials and CATA on Wednesday, the groups debated where to appropriate RHA's funds. RHA pushed to give free rides to all students instead of free tickets for some on a financial need basis.

"The best thing to do was actually fund these rides," said Ernest Drake, president of RHA. "My concern is the safety of students."

The association approved Drake's decision Wednesday to allocate $500 to fund Night Owl. Drake said he expects to begin offering free rides the first week of November.

Eleven sexual assaults have been reported so far this semester, but one case was determined false after a 19-year-old MSU student admitted she filed a false report.

Drake added that both RHA and CATA are working to raise public awareness about the night service.

"Students don't know about CATA's services and that's one of the problems," he said.

RHA might also appropriate money to advertise the service with MSU and CATA officials, Drake said.

"We want students to know about these services and make use of them," he said. "The services are there, and RHA is going to make them easier to use."

Len Schmidt, an operations manager for CATA, said flyers and schedules for Night Owl will be available on campus next week. He said stickers with the Night Owl phone number are already on the green light emergency phones throughout campus.

"This is a very important concept and safety is the reason it exists," Schmidt said. "It's designed for the safety of students on campus."

Criminal justice junior Delilah Quintanilla, who said she was a sexual assault victim earlier this semester, has used the Night Owl service twice and both times it took longer than 20 minutes to pick her up.

"We have it there so we should be using it," she said. "It'd be nice if they sped it up though because waiting can also be scary."

But most students are unaware the service exists.

"I've never heard of it, but it sounds like a good idea for people," said Burcu Kiliccioglu, an advertising freshman. "People should use it."