A GUSA proposal to extend GUTS bus hours to Saturday nights will top the agenda of a Nov. 7 meeting between members of the Student Association and university administrators.
While the proposal has been fruitless so far, GUSA hopes to overcome the financial obstacles that have impeded progress on the issue.
“While everybody agrees that, conceptually, extending service is a good idea, we have yet to find tangible funds,” Ed Shelleby (COL ’04), GUSA housing and facilities advisory committee chair, said. “While we can blame this department or that, it is important to understand that running GUTS on the weekends is expensive, and money has to be found for it. We’re Georgetown – we work with a tight budget,” Shelleby said.
Karen Frank, vice president for university facilities and student housing, estimates that the cost of adding additional weekend service would cost between $65 and $75 per hour per bus. This figure includes the driver’s salary, gas and maintenance.
Currently, weekend service – one bus that goes to both Rosslyn and Dupont operating from 12-5 p.m. every Saturday – costs $18,000 a year, according to Todd Olson, interim vice president for student affairs.
If four additional hours of service were added on Saturdays for 15 weeks per semester, the total cost for one year of added service would amount to $9,000, effectively half of the current weekend budget.
“The big issue is how to pay for it all. There is just so much wear and tear that the fleet can take. If we extend weekend hours, we have to expand the size of the fleet, and we need more drivers. We need to get a group together to look at this comprehensively, establish priorities and reallocate resources,” Karen Frank said.
GUSA President Brian Morgenstern (COL ’05) said he remains optimistic despite the fact that no additional funds can be put toward the extension, and the fact that no results have come from the two prior proposals.
“We will examine how effective the current system is and whether or not there may be a more efficient use of those funds for weekend transportation,” he said.
Discussion will include the most effective times and areas for weekend service.
Shelleby also noted that there is a huge range of GUTS routes that students desire.
“There are actually many competing reasons for weekend GUTS. Some want it for convenience to get into the city, some want if for security to get around the Georgetown area, some have even suggested using it to go to bars and pick up students at the end of the night. Before we can move forward, we need to figure out the reason that we’d allocate time, money and staff to the project,” he said.
