Proposal for Charge to University Senate Budget and Finance Committee
on Bus or Shuttle Transportation Between Camden,
Newark, and New Brunswick
Submitted to Senate Executive Committee
by the Student Affairs Committee
October 2007
For reasons outlined below, the Student Affairs Committee
requests that the Senate Executive Committee consider charging the Senate’s
Budget and Finance Committee as follows:
“Consider and make recommendations
on feasibility and usefulness of University-provided, free, daily shuttle or
bus service between the Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick campuses for any
persons holding valid Rutgers student or employee identification. Respond to
Senate Executive Committee by February 2008.”
Rationale:
Rutgers is a large, geographically dispersed university with
campuses in Camden, Newark,
and New Brunswick.
Cooperative programs and university-wide organizations (e.g., the University
Senate, university-wide committees, Boards of Governors and Trustees, Nursing,
Business, etc.) require students and employees to travel regularly among these
three campuses. In many cases, particularly for students, costs associated with
that travel are not reimbursable.
Rutgers already utilizes a
large system of bus transportation on each individual campus. However, these
bus lines, although extensive in the New Brunswick/Piscataway area, are
essentially intracampus only. The Student Affairs Committee members believe
that the Budget and Finance Committee’s standing charge makes it the
appropriate venue for this issue. We also believe that it is reasonable to
establish a transportation system which would provide buses from each campus to
both of the other two main geographic campuses each weekday morning, and
returning to their campus of origin each weekday evening or late afternoon. A
reservation system or protocol may also be useful, with a standby provision for
reserved seats that remain unfilled at time of departure.