Editorial SGA funds, efforts would find more direct student impact elsewhere

Author: [no author name found]

The Student Government Association (SGA)-sponsored shuttles to Boston and New York have been enormously successful, often selling out rides well in advance and helping to eliminate travel plan headaches for many students.

The Campus does not believe that the weekly service to Burlington will be equally useful for students. With additional publicity, the number of students taking advantage of the service may increase from the five students that boarded the first shuttle offered, but with the shuttle running every Saturday, the novelty of the option will likely wear off soon after.

The impetus for the program, however, is commendable, especially the idea of assisting Addison County Transit (ACTR) in its efforts to provide more environmentally sound transportation and enabling the College to serve as a partner for the Local Match program, granting ACTR access to significant Federal funds. In terms of the College helping out a local business and town citizens, the partnership makes sense. But the proposal did not need to come from the SGA, which should focus its limited time and resources on the issues more directly relevant to student life.

It seems that the SGA could parlay the $2,000 it has devoted to funding the program until the year's end to a cause that would directly benefit more students. A reduced cost shuttle to the airport around breaks, for example, would ease travel worries for students who do not live in the New England area in the same way students from Boston and New York have benefited from the break shuttles.

The SGA should also be working with the student body on issues of social life on campus, arguably one of the main concerns to current Middlebury students. The organization should gauge student opinion on social life, which is currently in a transitory phase, and formulate policy goals.

From the College's end, encouraging students to support town businesses should take priority over granting students increased access to Burlington.