The Assault Prevention Shuttle has had a long, contentious relationship with Designated Driver Shuttle.
I cannot and am not speaking for APS, DDS or the University. I can I only speak for myself and my experiences.
During my work as an APS volunteer, I’ve heard a constant stream of complaints against DDS. People connected to APS have raised concerns regarding the poor DDS work ethic (allegedly choosing to play video games instead of answering phone calls), forgetting to return keys to the office or van and subsequently not working, generally poor organization including having no spare keys available and not notifying APS when they are locked out and/or will not be working that night.
While volunteering once or twice a week in the APS office, I did not witness any of those events first hand and only heard of them after the fact.
However, the following did occur a few months ago when I was there. At APS, we received more calls than usual. Many calls were confused, inebriated people trying to contact DDS. When asked why they didn’t simply press the correct extension, the callers responded that they had tried repeatedly and no one at DDS answered. There were workers in the DDS office, so one of our staff members walked there and asked what was going on. DDS employees said they had forgotten to turn the phones back on after turning them off for some reason. Accidents happen, but when your job is to answer phones at a popular shuttle service, one would think it strange that no one was calling. It’s that kind of inattention to detail that APSers find so irritating.
Similar phone incidents occurred so frequently that APS began a log of when the DDS phone was not on during their scheduled work hours.
That said…
Does DDS save more lives than APS? Yes.
Does DDS provide a more valuable service to University students? It
depends on the student.
APS provides service to, on average, 70 people per night. APS runs every night of the week, from 7 p.m. to midnight on weeknights and until 2 a.m. on weekends. If keys are forgotten, workers can call someone to let them in immediately so APS can continue running as usual. APS has 12 paid staff members and more than 80 volunteers.
DDS runs from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. every day. . The DDS Web site, not updated since the 2001-02 school year, does not say how many people it serves each night. Its employees are paid and it does not rely on volunteers.
Now, it must be mentioned that not all DDS workers are irresponsible. In fact, many are dedicated, polite and good at their jobs. Nevertheless, an organization, like a team, is only as good as its weakest member. And the weakest members of DDS did something incredibly out of line — something so far from okay that it is reprehensible (“Designated drivers caught drinking,” ODE May 3).
It seems that DDS suffers from failure to communicate. Evidently, it wasn’t communicated that drinking on the job is totally unacceptable and could result in immediate dismissal and disciplinary action by the University. The University employee policy regarding drugs and alcohol is very clear:
“The illegal use, possession, or distribution of drugs and alcohol on institutionally owned or controlled property or as part of any University activity is proscribed conduct.” (See Oregon Administrative Rule (OAR) 580-22-045(8).)
“The University may impose
disciplinary sanctions against any student or employee found to have violated this rule … not limited to, suspension without pay, and termination of employment.”
The DDS employee drinking incident was probably an isolated one.
Yet by not running at its scheduled time and not answering phone calls, which DDS admits has happened several times, DDS has been irresponsible in its position as a student-funded service. It’s unfortunate a DDS employee did something as egregious as drinking on the job before the organization got a slap on the hand.
In an online post in response to the Emerald’s article on DDS, one shuttle employee says “I believe that the benefit provided on the many nights we are running at full strength vastly outweighs the burden put on APS the few nights we can’t run the vans.” To this I must ask, the benefit to whom? The intoxicated riders? Or the person who chose not to drink but would like a ride because he or she does not feel safe walking alone at night? The latter is our customer, who couldn’t get through to APS because drunk customers were flooding the phone lines when they couldn’t contact a DDS representative.
APS and DDS are both funded in part by student fees. When APS resources go to serving DDS patrons, it is not only unfair to APS staff and riders, but the student body as a whole.
It is impossible to know how many assaults, rapes, and acts of violence APS services have prevented. It is also impossible to know how many drunk driving incidents DDS has prevented. Both services are valid and important to the University. Neither one is more essential than the other, and both organizations need to be working at “full strength” every night to ensure the safety of University students who have come to depend on these services.

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