Waiting for up to an hour. Rude or uncooperative drivers. Unanswered calls. These are a few of the complaints voiced by students at a meeting this week on the status of the Late Night Van Service. The van service is a well utilized and well loved program of the College. Yet when it does not work properly, it endangers the very students it is supposed to protect.
As much as we would like to think that the van service picks students up in one place and quickly whisks them home, thus allowing them to avoid the “mean streets” of Hyde Park, this is simply not the case. The van service frequently takes more than half an hour to pick students up—often more time than it would take them to walk to their destination. The University must work to improve the service.
Hiring extra students, something that has occurred in the past, would increase the number of drivers. Having extra go-to student employees would ensure that driver illness or negligence would not prevent the van from running. Additionally, an overhaul of the phone system is necessary. A centralized phone system would allow for better deployment of the van in a more streamlined fashion. Finally, though the Maroon recognizes that College students are not always polite after either hours of studying or hours of partying, drivers should work on treating students with respect if deserved.