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Thursday, March 22, 2007 By Paula M. Davis Two of five bus routes serving Western Michigan University would be dropped starting in September under a contract being negotiated with Metro Transit. The free ride for WMU students on other city bus routes also appears to be ending. Blame Western's troubled budget situation and sagging parking-system revenues. University administrators are looking to control spending in all corners; Interim President Diether Haenicke announced a total hiring freeze within certain employee groups, effective this past Tuesday. The university's three-year contract with Metro Transit expires on June 30, and without a WMU subsidy, Kalamazoo transit director William Schomisch said, the city-run system can't continue the campus-area routes, which allow students to ride free. Lowell Rinker, WMU's associate vice president for business, said funding all five routes in the 2007-08 school year would be too costly. The university's budget for bus service in 2007-08 is $1 million, down from $1.7 million this school year and $2 million in 2005-06. Rinker said Metro Transit's initial proposal was ``basically the same contract we had, which was going to be a 19 percent increase'' because of fuel costs and inflationary increases. ``They did what they felt they needed to do to balance their budget in terms of pricing, but then we have to do what we have to do to balance our budget,'' he said. Revenue from the campus parking system, which largely funds the Metro Transit contract, has been ``down about $1.2 million over the last two to three years,'' Rinker said. Because of enrollment losses, WMU has sold fewer parking permits, and revenue from tickets for violations is down. The two bus routes that wouldn't exist when fall semester starts Sept. 4 accounted for about 160,000 of the 550,000 rides provided in 2006 on the five WMU routes, according to Metro Transit passenger counts. One of the routes that Western plans to stop funding -- the Lafayette route -- runs from the west edge of campus to the Knollwood area and apartment complexes off West Michigan Avenue and in the Drake Road vicinity that are teeming with students. ``It definitely helps out during the winter,'' WMU senior Victoria Stallworth, who lives in Knollwood, said of the bus route. The Solon-Kendall route, which takes students from west campus along areas of Howard Street, Solon Street and Kendall Avenue, is also slated for elimination. ``There's a lot of students that ride that route ... and I think the apartment complexes will be hurting because people aren't going to want to live there if they can't get a ride there,'' said freshman Andrew Stange, a regular rider. The three WMU routes that would be preserved under the current proposal are those that serve the engineering college at the Parkview Campus, one that picks students up at the Valley residence halls on campus, and a route to the College of Health and Human Services on Oakland Drive. While students would still be able to ride free on those three routes, Schomisch said WMU is looking to eliminate the benefit that allows students to take any Metro Transit route without paying a fare. ``Our mission on this, in my view, is to do a very good job of moving students around on campus,'' Rinker said of WMU's position. ``I don't view our primary mission as getting them to greater Kalamazoo,'' he said. WMU and Metro Transit teamed up to provide bus service to students in the late 1990s. ©2007 Kalamazoo© 2007 Michigan Live. All Rights Reserved. By: Nick Schwerin Posted: 3/21/07 Citing budget problems, officials at Western Michigan University will have to reduce how many bus routes the university can provide free for student use. Route 21, serving Solon-Kendall, and Route 22, serving Lafayette, will no longer be funded by the university, and all other system-wide usage will be cut. Cutting routes 21 and 22 will save $385,000 per year and all other system-wide usage will save $300,000 per year. Parking Systems revenues fund most of the contract with Kalamazoo Metro. They provide $1.4 million of the $1.7 million required for the contract. However, their revenue has fallen from $8.3 million to $7.1 million over the last two fiscal years. "We have to do all we have to do within the constraint of dollars we have to work with," said Lowell P. Rinker, associate vice president for business and assistant treasurer for the WMU Board of Trustees. The decline in Parking Systems revenues also comes at the same time that KMetro is proposing a 19 percent, or $380,000, increase in the cost of WMU's contract. "We've tried to work with [KMetro] in making the service as inviting as possible for students," Rinker said. Where the routes are and route timing affect how many students ride the buses. Bus system rider-ship fell 13 percent in the 2004-05 year, 9 percent in the 2005-06 year and is down 15 percent so far this year. Part of this drop is due to a decline in enrollment, Rinker said, but there are other factors as well. "I can tell you the rider-ship drop is higher than the enrollment drop," he said. Rinker said that the main objective of the system is to transport students on campus, and those services will stay intact. He said when budgeting becomes a problem, some things are a "need to have" and some things are a "nice to have." "The 'nice to have' of going full system is something we really had to take a look at," he said. "It was a 'nice to have' to support some of the outside access routes." However, he said these routes might not die out. Although WMU will not fund routes 21 and 22 anymore, KMetro might decide to continue these routes, but to use the routes each student would be assessed $1.35 per trip, or would have to buy a monthly unlimited use pass for $44.55. The bus route that covered The Pointe Apartments was previously cut from the budget, but that apartment complex decided to put up $75,000 per year to keep that route in operation. Rinker said that apartment complexes on the routes that WMU will stop could ban together and fund the routes. "This really benefits their bottom line, if you think about it," he said. "Those apartment complexes are the beneficiary of [the buses] so it's really only fair that they participate." WMU's current contract with KMetro ends in June, and Rinker said the university might consider a one-year contract instead of the three-year contract they have used in the past. Also, if all off-campus services are cut, a contract with a different bus system, such as Greyhound, would be possible, and could potentially save the university money. "I think we prefer to maintain our relationship with the city; they're good partners," Rinker said. "I'm not bad-mouthing KMetro at all. I understand what they're doing. But they're asking for more money at the same time we have to cut back." "We're going to try to preserve, or even enhance the on-campus bus services," he said. But he said that the university must, by necessity, be budget-conscious in all of its operations. "When we had the budget, and enrollment was high, [funding all the routes] was probably a good thing to do," he said. Rinker said he has also talked with the Students for a Sustainable Earth about the routes. SSE Co-Chair Travis Meier, a senior majoring in environmental studies and biology, said SSE takes an interest because the bus system helps the environment. "There are a lot of ways it's good for students and a lot of the ways it's good for the environment," Meier said. "More buses, less need for cars, less reliance on an automobile system…less need for parking services." Meier said he personally uses the bus system to ride out to the Parkview Campus, but coming only once per hour is not enough. Casey Barrons, a freshman in SSE, agrees. "The frequency directly affects the rider-ship," Barrons said. The SSE is preparing a survey to gauge how the university can most effectively use its budget for the bus system, and prove that the system has a worth to students. The survey will be released either Thursday or Friday to all students using Webmail. They will also be presenting a resolution to the Western Student Association to get them to declare the worth of the system. "Just to pass a resolution saying that the student body objects to any further reduction," Meier said. The resolution would also request that the university notify students when they are considering a change. "This year they're making a prior warning, but it's after the fact of the decision," he said. They will also talk to other universities that had similar problems. "The structure of the budget is a completely flawed system," he said. "The more people that ride the buses, the less money they have to ride the buses." "There are a lot of people who are just very set into driving," he said. Barrons said the system is an asset to the university. "We are one of the few campuses that offer a bus system integrated into the city," she said. © Copyright 2007 Western Herald
Ax falling on WMU bus routes
Students also likely to lose free rides around city
pdavis@kalamazoogazette.com 388-8583University cuts two campus bus routes
Solon-Kendall, Lafayette routes to lose university funding when contract ends in June
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