Last Saturday, GUSA sponsored a pilot program to investigate whether the University should invest in Saturday night bus transportation for students to Dupont Circle. Despite difficulty in locating funding for this program, GUSA should be commended for its efforts towards improving transportation, an issue that students value, and the University should learn from GUSA’s initiative and allocate funds for expanded bus service on the weekends.
Currently, the Georgetown University Transportation Service maintains weekday service to Dupont Circle, in addition to Wisconsin Avenue, Rosslyn, Arlington, Va., and the Georgetown University Law Center. While this service is free and convenient during the week, weekend routes are reduced to once an hour between noon and 6 p.m. No GUTS buses run on Saturday evenings, limiting students’ weekend plans to destinations within walking distance from campus or leaving them to take sometimes confusing Metrobuses or expensive cabs. According to GUSA President Brian Morgenstern (CAS ‘05), transportation is an ongoing issue for the Student Association, and he wants to encourage students to take full advantage of the city.
The program sponsored by GUSA last Saturday operated a bus from the Leavey Center on the hour and left Dupont on the half hour from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. According to Lynne Hirschfeld, Senior Business Manager of University Student Affairs, 120 students took advantage of this Saturday’s pilot program. While turnout shows that weekend transportation is clearly an important issue for students, Morgenstern said that getting funding for the buses, which costs several hundred dollars each Saturday, has been difficult. To shoulder this financial burden, GUSA is working with other student groups including Students of Georgetown, Inc., class committees, Office of Student Affairs, the Georgetown Program Board and the Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union to share the additional expenses.
While piecing together funding from various student groups provides a temporary working solution, the University should instead allocate funds for Saturday bus service instead of forcing student groups to stretch their limited budgets even further. The success of the recent pilot program demonstrate that the University should make Saturday GUTS service a priority.
