UGBC: New buses, sports ticket system

The first-ever Boston College grocery shuttle bus for students is expected to make its first run on Oct. 21. The new program is one of three initiatives the Undergraduate Government of BC has been working on for the upcoming semester. Other initiatives include the creation of a new Student Guide Committee and a points-based reward system for student sports tickets.

The grocery shuttle, paid for directly from the UGBC budget, is just waiting for approval from the Office of the General Counsel, with no anticipated problems or possible hold-ups.

A deal has been made with Boston Coach, which will be providing the shuttle service between BC's Conte Forum bus stop and the Star Market on Beacon Street. The shuttle will run each Sunday from 1 p.m.-5 p.m., with buses leaving every half-hour.

The shuttles can hold 29 people, but to ensure that every student has a chance to take advantage of this new service, half of the seats require reservations. Students will be able to sign up at UGBC.org once the seats are made available. The remaining seats will be on a first-come-first-serve basis.

"We're trying to make this as accessible as possible for all students," said Mike Bisanz, executive director of student life for UGBC and A&S '08.

Bisanz also noted that the service is for off-campus students as well.

For now, the shuttle service is only a trial program. The costs of the service too greatly exceed allocated funding in the UGBC budget, so unless the University picks up the bill, the service will only be temporary.

"We want this service to improve student life. Our ultimate goal is to have the shuttle service added to the transportation contract already existing between BC's administration and Boston Coach," Bisanz said.

"We would want the University to take up this initiative, but still need to prove there is a demand for this service, so we're being proactive about it," said Jenniffer Castillo, UGBC president and A&S '07.

The UGBC's plan is to run the shuttle on a temporary basis with the student government's own budget. After gathering statistics during the trial period, they hope to have sufficient evidence to take with them to the administration to prove the need for this service. Because the funding required to pay for the service is too great for the UGBC budget alone, if the administration is convinced of the demand, the UGBC hopes they will take over the costs and make it a permanent service for students.

"The costs for UGBC is expensive, but it is a small cut into the administration's budget, so they would be able to carry it on longer than we can now," Bisanz said.

If BC students are interested in seeing this new shuttle program become a long-term service, getting up and trying it out early is the best means of assuring the grocery shuttle will be here to stay.

"We hope students will take advantage of this service we are providing so it can become a permanent fixture at BC," Bisanz said.

The current plan is for the grocery shuttle to run every Sunday, starting this weekend, for the next four weeks in a row.

Castillo discussed another new initiative that the UGBC has started work on this semester as well. The UGBC, along with Office for the Dean of Student Development and the Office of the Vice President of Student Affairs, is in the process of creating a Student's Guide Committee to evaluate certain problematic areas in the Student Guide.

Dan Sievers, UGBC vice president and A&S '07, said the purpose of the committee is not to necessarily change policy, though he noted that this "may be an effect the committee has, we don't know yet." The original purpose, he explained, would be to help clarify policy on certain issues that BC students have been particularly concerned with in recent years, most notably speaker and demonstration policy.

Castillo also mentioned a new service the UGBC would be providing to help make these policies more clear and accessible to students through a document called "Know Your Rights." It is essentially a frequently asked questions list for the Student Guide regarding student rights, with questions such as "Are the BCPD allowed to search my bag?"

Castillo said the "Know Your Rights" document will be available at www.ugbc.org/studentrights.

The committee will also be working to adopt a new amnesty policy for students tending to intoxicated friends, allowing students to call the BC Police Department for a shuttle or some help in case of an emergency without punishment.

"This could help a lot of students," Castillo said. "It encourages students to take responsibility."

The final new initiative is still in the planning process, but involves a new points system for student ticket sales. Sievers said the UGBC can't take full credit for this new system because so many different bodies on campus are involved.

Nevertheless, the new system, which will run on a trail basis for the men's basketball and hockey seasons this year, gives students who attend more games a better chance of receiving tickets for the following year. Students receive points for every game they attend, and extra points for arriving early. A greater number of points would be given for attending the smaller, less-popular games, such as the basketball game against Mercer College this year. Fewer points will be rewarded for attending the big-time games.

Sievers said this system is modeled after most of the other ACC schools' ticket allocating systems.

The purpose of this new system is to encourage students to pack the stands for the sports teams for all games, not just for the major events.

"It is incentive for students to use tickets to make sure the teams get the support from their audience. The team deserves a full student section," Sievers said.