As seniors were getting ready to travel to the Stamford Bar Crawl, a dilemma arose when the buses that were meant to be taking them to the event Saturday, Nov. 5, never showed up at Veterans Park.
According to an email sent to the Class of 2018 regarding the event, from Beach Resident Advocacy Group member Jamison Wellman ‘18, “It was a result of a lack of communication with [Fairfield University Student Association] who agreed to sponsor the buses.” Buses were scheduled to leave Veterans Park at 9:30 p.m. and depart Stamford at 1:30 a.m.
This left many seniors in a tough spot because they had signed up and reserved one of the 160 seats available on the buses to Stamford, but ended up having to take other means of transportation to the event via Metro North’s New Haven train line or Uber.
As of right now, FUSA plans to reimburse students who reserved spots on the buses, although the bus was free of charge. Students who were originally supposed to take the bus were told via an email by BRAG to keep their invoices from their trip. This would allow them to receive a discount towards their Clam Jam ticket, according to FUSA President Cara Gibbons ‘18. She added that for those who do not plan on going to Clam Jam on April 28, “there will be alternate forms of compensation,” which have not been specified as of this time.
In terms of the role both FUSA and BRAG had in organizing the transportation, Gibbons noted, “when FUSA sponsors transport for an event they usually give money and don’t handle the organizing of the company. This was a detail missed on both sides so FUSA and BRAG would both agree that there was … a miscommunication about the finalizing of the transport itself.”
In regards to making things run more smoothly for transportation to the event, Gibbons pointed out that, “Next year, BRAG will be exploring multiple options, including not offering a bus at all.”
One of the students who was supposed to be on one of the buses, Rebecca Quillard ‘18, said that “while it was disappointing that the bus didn’t come, it wasn’t worth arguing or getting mad about it. We still wanted to go, so my friends just quickly got an Uber.”
Senior Beth McDonough said, “at first, I was upset with the buses not showing up, but it ended up working out because our Uber dropped us off directly in front of the first bar. My friends and I didn’t know how the buses would’ve fit on that busy street anyway.”
In order for FUSA to sponsor an event, Gibbons added that they implemented a co-sponsorship form that can be found on Orgsync for any group that wishes to have FUSA sponsor an event in some aspect.
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