Red Terror Transit, which shuttles students to and from home football games and Tobacco Road basketball games, may become the responsibility of Transportation or the Athletic Department as Student Government is looking to end its connection with the program.
Jay Dawkins, senior class president, said there are a lot of questions surrounding the future of Red Terror.
“We thought students should have a way to get to the football games from on campus,” Dawkins said. “At the time the cost of doing so was fairly minimal because there weren’t a lot of riders.”
But as ridership increased, the cost of the transit program did as well. With recent budget cuts, Dawkins said SG is having more problems funding the system.
“It started off as maybe costing $2,000 to $3,000 a year, something Student Government could afford,” Dawkins said. “It quickly grew into something that’s costing upwards of $15,000 a year, which is a big chunk of the Student Government budget.”
Tim Lipka, deputy chief of staff to the student body, said although the student body president four to five years ago began the program, the plan was to pass it off to Transportation after a year or two.
“Student Government is to design programs and to start programs and pass off big-ticket programs to departments that can better handle them,” Lipka said. “I’ve had to design routes, do ridership numbers … decisions like that need to be made at University Transportation.”
Lipka said SG is negotiating with Transportation for it to take over the operation of the system.
“We need to provide some stability for the program,” Lipka said. “We are not Transportation professionals. We’ve got to transition this program. It’s become too big for us to handle. They can plan it better than we can.”
Dawkins said it is a stretch for SG to say they provide transportation, but there are several questions that need to be addressed.
“Where is the service going in terms of how it is structured and how it is organized? Who organizes the routes?” Dawkins said. “Who’s going to pay for it if Student Government doesn’t pay for it? There are many people who would want Athletics or Transportation to fund it. Historically their budgets have not been set up to fund it. When you look at Athletics … finding a way to incorporate transportation is a little fuzzy.”
Dawkins said Athletics would have additional problems with handling Red Terror.
“Who’s going to organize it? That problem can’t be Athletic’s because they are looking for a turn-key solution,” Dawkins said.
Benjamin Rusche, sophomore in microbiology, said Student Government should make it a priority to get students to the game.
“I feel like Student Government should be involved because it’s their job to represent the students,” Rusche said.
He also said there were many problems with the current system that need to be fixed by someone, whether that means Student Government or Transportation.
“The time I rode the Red Terror was terrible. Maybe it’s gotten significantly better,” Rusche said.
Dawkins said SG was aware it was becoming a bigger problem last year but was not able to allocate the resources to fix it.
“This year Student Government has done a good job of addressing the problems. With those improvements comes a lot more cost,” Dawkins said. “We were able to fundraise for it amongst University departments and groups like University Bookstore and University Housing and Athletics covered a large part of the cost.
But this year, Dawkins said, SG was not successful with fundraising.
“The ultimate solution is going to be collaborating between Transportation, Athletics and Student Government,” Dawkins said. “At some point, somebody’s toes are going to get stepped on.”
