ENTERTAINMENT

Few students take advantage of campus shuttles AMANDA CARLSON | For the Wichitan It's all over campus but few students seem to notice. It's here for our convenience but is it necessary? The MSU shuttle service scuttles around campus every day in an effort to aid students who park far away from classes, however, according to shuttle driver Jerry Miller, few students seem to be taking advantage of the service. “On the warm days the kids like to walk. On the cold days that rained it picked up a bit but mainly a lot of them do walk, but I do catch one every now and then,” said the 59-year-old Miller. The shuttles, which are overseen by campus police, cost $10 per day in gasoline and drivers are paid $9 per hour, according to Michael Hagy, MSU chief of police. “We anticipate that this is something we will be using from now on to address the perceived parking situation,” Hagy said. “If we're going to ask people to park in those outlying areas, then we want to provide them a means to get to classes as fast as possible.” There are two shuttles in service; one, which only runs to and from Colony Park Apartments, and one that mainly stays on campus. Miller, who is responsible for the on-campus service, starts his route at 7:30 a.m. helping the other shuttle driver transport students from Colony Park to campus. From 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Miller tours the campus and then comes back at 3:15 to take students home to their various apartment complexes near campus. Miller has been on the job for about six weeks and believes usership is low because not many students know about the service. “I have gotten some that didn't realize what I was for. I said, ‘Sure, I'm here for your convenience. If you all need a ride to classes, that's what I'm here for,” Miller said. MSU senior Erin Adkins says she rarely sees the shuttle in the mornings, but when she did, she took advantage of it. “It was kind of nice. He just pulled up and asked if I needed a ride. I said no at first but then he said it was his job so I got in,” Adkins said. As classes let out, Miller tries to position himself where he describes as the “hot spots,” one being the intersection of Comanche Trail and Council Drive , in the middle of the Hardin building, Moffett Library and the Clark Student Center . “I shuttle a lot more from the mercantile building to the Fain building on the cold days.” However, Miller says he only averages about eight riders each day, and on some days he doesn't even get that many. “Most of the time they're in a hurry to get to their next class but every once in a while I'll grab one.” Seniors Monica Morris and Heather McDaniel believe the service to be inconvenient and says the campus isn't big enough for a shuttle to be successful. “By the time you wait for it you could be half way to class. It's not like other campuses where you have to cross major streets, everything is right there,” Morris said. “There's never a bus there waiting for you, you have to go to where the bus stops and wait for them to get there. Once you get on the bus you have to fight traffic and it's just not worth it,” McDaniel said. This semester a wheelchair lift was added to the shuttle. Miller said he hasn't used it yet but the students who need it might not know it's available. The back seat was removed to add the wheelchair lift and now the shuttle can't carry as many people. “I need a van with more carrying capacity to shuttle kids home,” Miller said. “Sometimes there will be ten to 15 needing a ride and I'll have to cram them in here.” Miller's shuttle logs show that a majority of his users are from the Colony Park Apartments rather than students who are already on campus. On Feb. 2, 111 students rode the shuttle from the apartments to campus from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Very few of those students on campus used the shuttle from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. that day. McDaniel believes the service to be useful for the students who live in off-campus housing, but does not think students living on campus are benefiting. “I don't think it's a convenience for people looking to go from one point on campus to another,” McDaniel said. In the mean time, Miller continues to cruise the campus in an effort to find the students with the long walk to class. He's optimistic that with the changing seasons, more students will want to take advantage of his service. “I'm sure when the weather really gets nasty, I'll get more riders. The other day when it was snowing, I picked up quite a bit.”   Student clarifies misunderstandings about her mother, honors program As many of you Honors and German students know, my mother, Dr. Michaela Smith, no longer works for the university. Last week's article in the Wichitan may have led some of you to believe that the reasons for her departure had to do with her performance as the Honors Program director; however, that is not the case. After I read the article, I was appalled by its highly misleading information, and now see it as my duty to make some clarifications on my mother's behalf. What I am about to tell you is not my opinion; it is fact. After talking to Dr. Wiedemann, I realized that the mistakes in the article were merely the results of miscommunication, and I do not wish to blame anybody for what happened. First I will address the issue of the Honors Program's "growing pains." When Dr. Moon became the president of the university, he hired my mother as the new honors director. The program, which at that time only offered core classes, clearly needed some help. Dr. Moon decided that it would be best for Honors students to focus mainly on activities and organizational participation. Therefore, the core classes that were previously offered were cancelled, and the only necessary Honors classes were an introduction course and a capstone seminar. It soon became evident that this system was not challenging enough for Honors students, though, and that major changes needed to be made. At that point, my mother presented some new ideas to a committee of very dedicated faculty members, and as a team they devised a compromise in which Honors courses were designated for both Honors and regular students. Last semester, a teacher contracting system was also used so that Honors students who needed to graduate could get enough Honors credits. This system was regularly used before Dr. Moon's presidency, and -as the article in last week's paper mentioned- the Honors students did not have many opportunities to get to know each other. Contrary to statements in last week's article, my mother and the current Honors Committee brought an end to this, and decided instead to require students to take core classes. Although this plan was supposed to have been implemented last semester, it could not be officially used until this semester. The "previous program implemented under Smith" actually described the state the program was in before my mom transformed it. I know that the Honors Program is not perfect, and that my mother still had many changes to make; however, we all need to remember that the system is still new and that changes in the university's leadership will inevitably lead to changes in the program.

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