More PARTA stops needed for students

Longer operating hours for the Student Center and expanding the downtown bus service are some of the platform goals Undergraduate Student Senate executive director Katie Hale is starting to work on during the summer.

USS held two public meetings this summer and, among other business, discussed changes to the Downtowner with Joseph Yensel, operations manager of PARTA. The meetings were held June 6 and July 18.

The Downtowner takes students downtown from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday and Saturday nights during the school year. Hale suggested adding a University Townhomes stop to the route beginning Aug. 8.

Yensel was open to the suggestion and said future plans include adding Holly Park and some of the apartments on Main Street.

Other changes, Yensel said, include extending the hours of the Suburban Route from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. and adding a fare-free stop at the C-Midway parking lot. Also, he said the service to Akron will be extended from four trips a day to seven trips.

“I think this is going to be great for students – for the student-PARTA relations,” Hale said.

She said her main concern was to reach out to the students living on Summit Street.

Hale said she also hopes to see the hours of the Student Center extended, with the Rathskeller and Cybercafe open later.

Colleen Burch, president of the All Campus Programming Board, presented an allocations request for $1,500 for more late-night and week-end programming in the Student Center. USS approved the request.

Some of Burch’s suggestions for programming included themed movie nights, more concerts and comedians and a Mocktail night for the under-21 crowd.

“At least every night something will be going on in the Student Center,” she said.

Hale said ACPB’s idea of adding more late-night programming “coincided nicely with what I wanted to do with extending the operating hours of the Student Center.”

In the June meeting, USS approved the 2007-2008 operating budget, which Hale said remained relatively unchanged from the previous year, except, this year the senate is co-sponsoring a speaker and will be hiring a public relations and marketing assistant.

The senate is also currently working on rewriting the bylaws for the new Undergraduate Student Government, which will replace USS, add 16 new positions and have an executive cabinet and a senate.

Contact principal reporter Kiera Manion-Fischer at [email protected].