DU Shuttle Program not worth the money

 By Leslie Gehring, leslie.gehring@du.edu

Students pay to support underused program

Every DU student pays the annual student activity fee of $192. This money is used to support a variety of organizations that are supposed to benefit students. The DU Shuttle Program received $15,000 in student money this year.

This is an absurd amount of money to spend on a program that is of little use to students.

The shuttle is too inconvenient and limited to be of use to students. It only runs from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. and only travels along a scheduled route that doesn’t even cover all of campus. All of campus south of Iliff Avenue is completely ignored.

If students are paying for the shuttle, it should provide convenience and improve safety. Several changes need to be made:

• The shuttle service should run 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. This is college; students stay up late and should be able to use the shuttle program to get home when it’s late.

• Students should be able to call the shuttle service to request pick-ups. Forcing students to stand outside in the cold, often alone, in the wee hours of the morning is no better than making them walk home at that time.

• The shuttle program needs to cover a greater area, including not just on-campus stops, but also nearby off-campus shops and restaurants.

If the shuttle program makes these changes, then maybe the thousands of dollars of student money spent on it would be justified. Until then, however, the shuttle program remains a waste of student money.

Do you use the DU Shuttle Program? What’s your opinion of it?