Meghan Robitaille – Special to the Southern News
We’ve all been there, waiting in the frigid cold just to be sure to get your seat on the Southern shuttle. There have been below freezing days where I have stood outside in the cold with many of my other fellow classmates at 12:30 waiting for a 1:00 shuttle. And when that shuttle comes in viewing distance it is like a cast of hawks eyeballing their prey. And it gets worse. Once the driver opens the door to the shuttle, it is survival for the fittest. I have never seen such aggressive acts from my thought to be well-behaved schoolmates. With thirty kids waiting in the freezing cold and only twenty seats available on every shuttle, disappointment is bound to happen.
The shuttles arrive once an hour, so if you miss it, tough luck. The shuttles only run until 8 p.m. so don’t plan on going out too late, unless you want to risk your life by taking the New Haven transit bus. New Haven is one of the most dangerous cities in America, you’d think Southern Connecticut State University would take that into consideration while trying to create a transportation plan for their students. I know surrounding universities such as Quinnipiac and Yale took this factor into consideration, since their shuttles are double, if not triple the size of Southern’s.
Also, after researching their shuttle schedules Quinnipiac has a shuttle to downtown as late as 2 a.m. This is very smart and logical of Quinnipiac University, that I wish Southern also offered. Having this shuttle until 2 a.m., students are still able to go out and get home safely. On the Yale website it states, “The Daytime Campus Shuttle operates from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Between 6 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. on 359 days a year, any member of the Yale community can obtain free transportation on the Yale Nighttime Shuttle”. I know multiple of my Southern peers who have either walked or taken a taxi back to Southern due to the lack of transportation here at Southern. For all the money Southern students put into this school, I think they should be rewarded with a secure transportation plan that runs at hours the typical student runs at.
I understand it will cost a little extra money to invest in bigger shuttles and pay the drivers a few more bucks for working a couple more hours, but the benefits outweigh the price. Living in a city where the crime rates are exceedingly high, safety should be one of Southern’s main values, but looking at the shuttle’s size and schedule, being a student at Southern I don’t believe safety is a value here.