I'm writing on behalf of the Board of Directors of the Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) to express our appreciation for the editorial "CATA service is essential for off-campus students" (April 23). The Collegian's Board of Opinion is absolutely correct that as more and more students choose to live beyond a reasonable walking distance from campus, CATA is having greater and greater difficulty meeting their transportation needs.

Our federal, state and local taxpayer support is not sufficient to keep up with the increasing cost of our current service, and there is simply no way we can expand to meet new demands.

Therefore, we are very interested in working with Penn State to address the need for improved off-campus bus service, just as we have developed a partnership with the university for the Loop, Link and other on-campus services.

We are encouraged by Penn State's growing awareness that improved community bus service can be a valuable asset to the campus. We are hopeful that sometime in the future, when resources permit, we will be able to enhance the current CATA/Penn State partnership to better address the public transportation needs of off-campus students.