Night-time shuttle: Booze bus or safety issue?

by Lauren Pepiciello Students at Quinnipiac University don’t have to ponder the question, “How are we getting home?” because they already know. Quinnipiac University provides a shuttle from its suburban Hamden campus to New Haven, CT. “The shuttles are supposed to be for students who don’t have cars, but, given the times the shuttles run and the locations, many students use them to get to and from the bars,” according to a student government representative, Victoria Backus ’05. At Fairfield, FUSA used to sponsor a safe rides bus service to transport students to and from the beach. In the late 1990s, however, the university stopped the bus service, leaving students who party at the beach in an unfriendly predicament about how to get home. “It’s really annoying that we have to rely on cabs to get back to campus,” said Jaclyn Caputi ’06. “We don’t want to have to wait for a cab or leave our cars there.” Some Fairfield administrators strongly believe that we should not have these shuttles, which run to nightlife areas. Mark C. Reed, associate vice president and dean of students, is one administrator who doesn’t believe that these shuttles are”appropriate or necessary.” “There is often an implicit assertion that students under 21 are going to drink so the university should just accept it, let it happen, and provide all the safety mechanisms to keep individuals from harm,” he said. But, in the university’s defense, Reed added, “I don’t think this is or should be about what the university is doing; rather, I think this is really an issue about what the students choose to do or how to spend their time.” Jeanne DiMuzio, director of Wellness and Prevention, agreed with Reed. “Students who are of age and can frequent these locations need to adopt the safety practices that accompany the privilege,” she said. “There are numerous forms of transportation that are available to any citizen to get them to and from the nightlife.” “The majority of students who are ‘crying out’ for the service are students who are not of age and should not be attempting to enter the establishments anyhow,” DiMuzio added. Although these shuttles may be convenient for many Fairfield students, having them can be a burden. DiMuzio said that FUSA stopped doing safe rides because they were a “liability and [a] nuisance.” She was referring to incidents where students took advantage of this service by vomiting, urinating and groping on the shuttles. Regardless, many Fairfield students think that shuttles like the ones at Quinnipiac are a good idea and that we should have them here. “We should have shuttles,” said Eric Merner ’06. “It would stop people from drinking and driving.” “It’s a reality that many college students drink. I think it’s more important for students to be safe than anything else,” said Kate D’Emic ’06. Other students, however, disagree. “The freshmen would be taking it all the time,” said Ryan Mensching ’06. According to Mensching, a lot of underage students would be utilizing the shuttles and Fairfield Beach residents would have to deal with larger and more out of control parties. The Quinnipiac New Haven Shuttle schedule, available on the Quinnipiac website, shows that there are shuttles running on weekdays as late as 2:25 a.m. and on Fridays and Saturdays until 3:30 a.m. “I love having the shuttles,” said Jenna Macari ’06, a student at Quinnipiac University. “They stop within walking distance to the New Haven bars and we rely on them a lot.” According to Backus, Quinnipiac is facing similar issues as Fairfield did with the shuttles. There has been an excessive amount of urinating and vomiting on them, especially on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. “Students here need to realize that the shuttles are a privilege,” said Backus. It seems that the only winner in this debate is the Fairfield cab system, which transports students to the beach and then back to campus regularly. “I’m a junior and I still take cabs because me and my roommates won’t drive, even if we have only a sip of alcohol,” said Elizabeth Orgera ’06. “It seems like I can’t leave my townhouse on a Friday or Saturday night without nine dollars.”