It's 3 a.m. you're tired, you're cold -- and you don't want to walk home. The Weekend Loop is for you.
The Undergraduate Student Government Weekend Loop successfully started up last weekend, carrying almost 300 students in its first appearance this semester.
The Loop is a nonprofit service to students sponsored solely by USG. Two buses, running on 15-minute intervals, cover a designated course in the fraternity district to pick up students and then drop them off on campus.
Mike King, USG Senate president, said the Loop was "incredibly successful" last weekend, especially considering the low number of fraternity parties because of Homecoming. He added that the Loop only picks up students off campus because of University liability.
USG set aside money from its unrestricted account last year to begin the project, King said. The money pays for bus and driver rental, he said, adding that the 25 cent rider fee is put back into the money set aside for the project. King estimated the cost per rider for the service is about 75 cents, but USG pays the extra 50 cents.
Last year, the service used an extended van with a magnetic sign on the side. Since then, the project was reviewed by King and USG Pollock/Nittany Senator Lisa Fields. The vans, now minibuses, are better lit and safer.
Jitu Modi, USG South Halls senator, was charged with improving bus safety for this semester.
Modi said he decided to have safety riders on each of the two vans. Different organizations were asked to take at least one weekend each semester and provide riders for both nights of that weekend, Modi said, adding that groups could either have one or two riders on each bus.
Circle K, Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity and Phi Sigma Pi service fraternity have all promised to take two weekends this semester, Modi said.
The safety riders wear a red windbreaker and are responsible for collecting money and counting how many students ride. But this isn't all that they do.
"It's a lot of fun," Modi said, "I love talking to everyone on the bus. I made so many friends last week just by talking to people riding the buses."
Candace Drewes (sophomore-counselor education) said her stint as a safety rider was definitely an experience to remember. "I got to talk to people from all over campus," said Drewes, a member of Circle K.
The riders are mostly for supervision and can't really do much if anything happens, Modi said. They are mostly there to be witnesses and help out, he said.
King said sororities are not directly sponsoring the service, but they are contributing in a way. USG offered all sororities the opportunity to buy passes for all their members for $150, King said, adding that this works out to about $1.50 per member. USG has heard from almost all of the University's sororities, he said.
Individual passes are available to students for $2 in the USG office and are good for the remainder of the school year.
The Interfraternity Council was contacted about donating money to the project, King said, but it was decided that fraternities will be approached individually.
Stephen Junker, president of Theta Xi fraternity, 425 Locust Lane, said the project is good because it gets his fraternity's guests home safely and at a cheaper cost than a taxi. Theta Xi has not been contacted yet to donate money to the project, Junker said, but added that he thinks his chapter probably would donate some funds.
