Each Friday and Saturday night, two Assault Prevention Shuttles cruise the streets of Eugene, ferrying University students to and from all corners of the city. However, if APS can’t secure sufficient funding, one of the vans may spend fall term 2009 idle in a parking spot.
In preparation for the 2009-10 school year, APS requested nearly $10,000 more than what ASUO provided for the program in 2007-08. ASUO denied the request, leaving APS scrambling to find enough money to continue funding a second shuttle on weekends. APS appealed the decision and has a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
University senior and Programs Finance Committee Chairman Nick Schultz said that according to the PFC’s internal finance model, APS was not eligible for the 13.39-percent budget increase first requested. However, to recognize APS’ important service to campus, Schultz said the committee planned to put APS at the top of the recall list to be reviewed after all other University budget meetings. But after APS appealed the original budget decision, Schultz said the PFC decided to wait and hear APS’ arguments before providing any recall funds. “Now that we’ve heard all the other University groups, I think there are a lot of very strong arguments that can be made in APS’ favor during their appeal hearing on Tuesday,” Schultz said.
APS requested about $80,000 to fund the 2009-10 school year. The amount takes into account the maintenance, staff and gas costs of running a second shuttle on weekends. ASUO instead granted APS a 3.59 percent increase of last year’s funding, or a budget of $73,403.
That, however, just isn’t enough, said University senior and APS Co-Director Zane Ritt. The service needs at least another $4,000 to fund the payroll required for a second van, Ritt said.
“They told us we’d be a good candidate to receive any extra money left over after ASUO budgeted all the other clubs,” Ritt said. “However, we can’t really take that risk with the program so we appealed the decision.”
Another University transportation service, the Designated Driver Shuttle, received a funding increase of less than 1 percent, resulting in a $104,563 budget for next year. DDS originally requested about $1,000 more than that. Schultz said a number of factors play into the difference between DDS and APS budgets, such as APS’ general history of not meeting PFC budget expectations: Schultz said APS has “historically, not the best spending record,” and has inconsistent spending from year to year.
Ritt said that although APS has hadfinancial issues in the past, he does not believe that what happens in one year reflects the program’s needs in the long term. APS is growing, Ritt said, and as such has a legitimate need for additional funding.
Although the current 2009-10 budgets of the two services differ by about $31,000 , Ritt said that both provide necessary services to campus. He’s hopeful APS and ASUO can reach an agreement that will allow the second APS shuttle to run.
The addition of a second van came halfway through fall term when ASUO provided additional funding for APS to meet the needs of an unprecedented number of University freshmen. APS reports that with the extra shuttle, 341 more weekend riders were served during the second half of fall 2008 than during all of fall 2007.
APS staff members now fear losing the means to help as many students next fall. University sophomore and APS Volunteer Coordinator and Dispatcher Ryan Liu said that although he appreciates that ASUO has to balance all University programs, APS is not asking for any more than what’s needed.
“If we don’t get the funding, there’s not much more we can do about it,” Liu said. “We have everything but the people to run the shuttle.”
APS has a volunteer core of around 40 students, but Liu said volunteers don’t usually come in on weekends. Even then, one volunteer shift of the standard two hours does little to solve the overall problem of providing drivers all night.
“Though one volunteer on the weekend is great, all he or she can do is relieve one staff member,” Liu said. “We need at least two volunteers to run a van for at least a two hour shift.”
All APS drivers must first take a University-run driver certification class that, Liu said, makes it “really hard” to attract willing volunteer drivers. In addition, Ritt said the Friday and Saturday night shifts, when APS receives the most calls, are usually the shifts that are hardest to fill. In order to run a second shuttle, Ritt said additional payroll funds are necessary.
APS already faces the problem of over-popularity. University junior and APS Co-Director Audrey Chrisler said APS cannot provide rides to 33 percent of students who call for the service.
“We just don’t have enough manpower,” Chrisler said. “If we had more funding, we could increase payroll to increase our current staff of five people.”
University sophomore Lindsay Minar had no idea APS faced such overbooking problems the night she called to use the service. Having stayed later than expected on campus, Minar and two friends decided to call the 346-RIDE number they’d seen posted all over campus.
“The lady who answered acted like she didn’t have time for us,” Minar said. “She told me that we needed a reservation. I didn’t know that. Then I told her there were three of us and she was like, ‘Oh, APS can’t take that many.’”
Liu said that was because at any given time APS vans can only hold five riders. When Minar called the van may have been too full to hold three more riders. Reservations, Liu said, help to avoid such problems.
Minar’s group ended up taking DDS back to their rooms at H.P. Barnhart Hall. In the future, Minar said she’ll still use APS if necessary.
Avoiding such issues and providing for more students remains a top priority for APS, Ritt said.
“The program really needs to expand from years past and that, unfortunately, requires money,” Ritt said. “But, at the same time, no matter what we’re still going to work and provide a good service to students.”
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APS seeks additional funds for van
Daily Emerald
February 5, 2009
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