Last night I took the opportunity to ride the White Loop during its new hours, and UPUA, color me impressed. The new hours served the purpose they were intended to and did so with few complications.

On the particular bus I rode, I had a chance to talk to UPUA Chief of Staff Matt Smith and Greek Life Director Chris Caswell, who were serving as that night’s ambassadors. I give props to them for spending two hours of their Friday Night/Saturday Morning making sure things run smoothly.

While the majority of the riders were at various states of inebriation, everyone seemed relatively docile. Perhaps the late hour took the edge off. Talking to Matt, he said there had only been one incident where students started to get out of hand, and that quickly subsided without the need to kick anyone off the bus. This anecdotal evidence is by no means proof this will be the trend, though, and it will be interesting to see how things play out over the next few months.

Not that surprisingly, almost every rider was a freshman (or at least got off at East). On my trip, nearly 40 students got on downtown and only six were left after passing the East Halls bus stop.

In the end, I’d say UPUA can definitely chalk this one up as a success. Who else plans on taking advantage of these extra weekend hours?