ARHS and UPUA have accepted the fact that Penn Staters drink. With the help of new information cards, they're striving to get students home safely.
The cards display phone numbers for three taxi services, the number for the campus escort service, and a miniature CATA bus schedule. The front and back are shown here.
Steve Roberts, associate vice president of Association of Residence Hall Students (ARHS), conceived the idea of the cards in light of the recent State Patty's Day. We contacted Mr. Roberts for an explanation of these cards.
"The cards are printed on cardstock and thus are durable. Additionally, they are not in the traditional format of a flyer or larger piece of paper which would typically be thrown out. The cards are about the size of a normal business card and slide easily into your wallet or purse so that when students go out it's not a hassle to bring it with them."
In addition, he says that several bars and apartments have already requested information cards to distribute to students.
At my floor meeting last night, my RA passed around a stack of these cards. My floormates agreed that while the front side may prove useful, the reverse side is laughably illegible due to the minuscule font size.
This initiative is a great idea, and I hope it succeeds. However, a bit of advice for the lost drunkard in need of transportation: call a taxi, don't wait for the bus. It's highly probable that you can't decipher the font.
CATA's lack of support for cash-strapped Graduate students here at Penn State has started to get on some bus rider's nerves.
Two of those Graduate students, Crista M. Livecchi and Emma Gaalaas Mullaney, have started a Facebook group called "PSU Grads for Transportation Equity," calling for CATA to give them the same kind of financial break it gives full-time Penn State staff members. According to the group, Penn State staffers are currently eligible for CATA's Ride for Five program, which offers a bus pass for $5 a month as opposed to the regular rate of $49 a month.
The Grad students, on the other hand, who don't have two pennies to rub together, have to pay the full monthly rate.
To an outsider like me, this seems like a humongous load of crap, but, as I said, I'm on the outside looking in. Fortunately, both creators of the group were kind enough to offer me some insight on the situation, explaining things much better than I ever could. Read on to find out what they had to say.
The Collegian is reporting that CATA's fare may go from $1.25 to $1.50 in the near future. While this won't affect students who only ride the loop, those who take a trip to Walmart and Wegmans on occasion will have to pay a bit extra.
As one insightful student said:
I don't think anyone riding the bus will be supportive of it.
I ride the bus maybe once a month, so I know that even if the fare goes up, I'm probably not going to care.
A decision won't be made on the issue until March, and there will be a chance for community members to speak out on the issue. While the rate increase won't have much effect on students, I think those who are actual residents of State College and rely on the bus to get to work may have stronger opinions.
The Centre Area Transit Authority recently released their CATA iPhone App for free. They previously had an app that was basically just a bunch of black and white scans of their bus schedules, then they had the balls to charge me $1.99 for it. (Turns out it was a student who made this app for their ENG411 class and then had the balls to charge me $1.99 for it, YouTube )
But their new app has hit a home run with their new GUI and GPS data. I used the updated CATABUS.com website's realtime bus locater often (amazing!), but it was a real pain in the ass to use it on my phone. More times that not I was stuck out in the cold navigating their website to find that I just missed the bus. Now I'll be able to check my bus schedules right before I leave class with only two touches of the glass to find out that I just missed the bus, and I might as well hop on www.OnwardState.com for a few moments to see whats happening.
You can get this app in the iTunes App Store now
Onward State iPhone App Usefulness Rating: A+
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?
It's the first week of spring semester and the UPUA is officially back in session. Last night, President Gavin Keirans welcomed everyone back by updating the assembly on what he and others have been working on recently.
After what were probably fantastic and fun-filled negotiations, the UPUA and CATA came to an agreement to extend the White Loop until 4:30 am on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Additionally, two "ambassadors" from student organizations including the UPUA will be available during the extended hours to act as a sort of liaison between CATA and the UPUA.