Univ. View bus reopens to all riders

After five days of restricting the University View bus route to View residents alone, the Department of Transportation Services reversed its decision and will open the bus to all students again starting today, a DOTS official said yesterday.

DOTS Assistant Director David Davitaia confirmed the buses will be open for all students today. He said the decision to go back to the old standard was made late last week, though he wasn't sure of the reason behind the sudden change.

"This policy was instituted to ensure that the students who live in this apartment complex, and whose monthly rent, no doubt, contribute to transportation, were given a fair opportunity to ride the special bus service that the complex has negotiated with the Department," the DOTS website reads. "However, we at the Department, have listened to the response from the student community, and realize that such a move, while ensuring that this portion of our community is being served, causes some hardship to students who live in the Route 1 area and who have come to depend on this particular bus to get to campus."

Student Government Association President Jonathan Sachs said the SGA played a key role in switching the ridership rule.

DOTS Director David Allen could not be reached for comment for this story.

In addition to expanding ridership back to non-residents of the View, DOTS will add an extra bus to the route during peak hours in the morning to avoid crowded buses, which was the goal of the original decision, Sachs said.

Many off-campus students complained to administrators early last week that they had to walk more than a mile to the campus after being denied access to a bus they used to catch in front of the View, said Kate Shoemaker, chair of the SGA's Off-Campus Affairs committee. The reversal of the decision DOTS originally made last Monday allows all off-campus students to resume taking the shuttle to the campus.

Sachs said he discussed the new rule with Allen on Friday after receiving student complaints through the SGA's off-campus legislators, with the most frequent being, "Why such an instant change in policy?" Shoemaker said she answered e-mails and phone calls from "confused and upset" students affected by the decision and said not one person she talked to - including View residents - was happy about the decision to restrict ridership.

Shoemaker said she planned on writing SGA legislation about the new DOTS rule. When she talked to Sachs about it, he brought the student complaints to Allen and "it didn't have to come to that," Shoemaker said.

"I'm very happy that people contacted me about it," Shoemaker said. "I'm very happy it turned out the way it did."

"These are the things we want to help students out with," Sachs said. "This is what the SGA is strong for. If people have an issue, they should bring it to the legislators and we can resolve the issue."

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