Correction appended

Enthusiasm for the extended-hours bus service touted by student body president Gavin Keirans as a major goal has waned after a series of "less-than-constructive" meetings with the State College Borough Council, one student leader said Tuesday.

"Much of what everyone ran on in the election has either come to fruition, or we have seen that it is not feasible," University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) spokesman Chris Nock said, citing the bus service as one initiative not likely to see implementation.

The Highlands Loop was planned to be a late-night bus service that would provide 10 extra stops on campus and downtown from 12:30 to 3:30 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The service was one of Keirans' campaign goals when he ran for re-election last spring and something the UPUA president personally presented to borough officials.

But UPUA has been forced to tone down its optimism about the loop's implementation. While borough officials did express their support for increased safety measures, Keirans said after an Oct. 8 UPUA meeting they were not in favor of extending CATA routes beyond Beaver Avenue, as residential areas would be involved. The proposed Highlands Loop would have traveled past Beaver Avenue to East Fairmount Avenue on South Pugh Street and South Garner Street.

Because the proposal was never formally presented at a borough council meeting, the council never took an official stance on the Highlands Loop, State College Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said -- but a "variety of concerns" were raised during meetings with UPUA members and university officials.

Many of the borough's concerns focused around safety, Fountaine said. Council members wanted to know if adding the route would cause an increase in crime and if it was safe for students to travel alone on the bus and be left to find their way home from locations further away from campus.

Another issue brought up by council members was that the bus service would offer additional locations for inebriated students to congregate in residential neighborhoods.

The loop's prospects were once sunnier. At the Oct. 8 UPUA meeting, Vice President Hillary Gupta told the assembly more meetings were needed with borough officials.

"The issue is not dead," Gupta (senior-marketing) said.

But Nock (junior-public relations) said UPUA now no longer believes the Highlands Loop meetings with the borough are moving in a positive direction -- and as a result, student government leaders no longer see the program as viable.

UPUA will have a mandatory "game plan" session on Nov. 8 in an effort to set its agenda for the next few months.

Keirans said Monday he hopes to see some "concrete" plans by the end of the meeting, adding that the budget initially allotted for the Highlands Loop will free up money for at least two or three projects.

This article incorrectly states who would run the proposed program. Fleet Services would run the program. Also, the headline unclearly stated the progress of the plan. The plan has not dissolved.