Brandeis does not currently have enough dormitory housing for all of its 3,051 undergraduate students. As a result, a number of students are required to live off campus to avoid over-crowding of dorms. Though some students prefer to live off campus, many with high lottery numbers are forced to find off campus housing. For them the alternative is to risk being homeless if not placed from the wait list. Many of these students are left without transportation. While an on-campus van circles the perimeter of Brandeis toting people short distances to and from class, many off-campus commuters are stuck walking one or two miles to get to class.

Brandeis has turned a blind eye to the needs of these individuals while providing a luxury for those students that are fortunate enough to live in the dorms. Instead of an on-campus transportation service, Brandeis should offer an off-campus shuttle during the daytime hours to accommodate those less fortunate in the housing lottery.

The lack of off-campus transportation to Brandeis is a safety issue as well as one of convenience. Weather conditions often make the long walk hazardous to students. After heavy snowfall, sidewalks disappear. Sometimes days pass before the sidewalks are cleared because clearing the streets is first priority for the town. Thus, students are forced to walk in the streets while cars whiz by churning up dirty snow or slush. The walk is still dangerous after sidewalks are cleared because they are coated in inches of ice from settled snow.

One might suggest bike riding as an alternative to walking. Though this mode of transportation is much faster, it is not always feasible. After snow, cycling on roads is extremely dangerous because they are narrowed by snowbanks. Also, sidewalks are not clear enough to provide sufficient traction for a bike. Cycling is not ideal on rainy days because brakes do not work well when wheels are wet and it is difficult to shelter oneself from the rain. Finally, biking to school requires biking home. Often it is already dark by the time students are able to leave. At night cyclists are not as visible to cars and are not able to see pedestrians or sidewalk obstacles clearly. Night cycling poses risks to the cyclists and to other students walking home after dark.

To solve the transportation problem for off-campus students, Brandeis should provide a scheduled van service during the daytime hours. The current "call for a pickup" system would not be adequate because it is not reliable enough to get students to class on time. Rather, scheduled stops should be established and a van should run every half hour to shuttle students. By avoiding stops such as Victory or CVS and focusing only on transporting students to and from school, the off-campus van could function more efficiently during the daytime hours.

Rather than creating additional expenses for Brandeis, the off-campus daytime shuttle should replace the on-campus shuttle service. Brandeis campus is small; a person can walk from one end to the other in less than ten minutes. The time it takes students to walk to class is approximately equal to the time it takes for the van to arrive. Students with disabilities do not rely on this service because they're escorted to class by campus police. Thus, the on-campus van is merely a luxury for the lazy. The only on-campus populations in need of this service are people living in housing detached from Brandeis (i.e. the Charles River Apartments). The off-campus shuttle could easily accommodate these students. Furthermore, this on-campus population complains about the inconsistency of current Brandeis transportation. It is likely that most students in Grad housing would prefer a scheduled off-campus van to the current "call for a pick-up" system.

Thus, as long as the University is unable to house all students who apply for housing, those less fortunate in the lottery deserve -- at a minimum- the right to decent transportation to school.

-- Lynne Gauthier '04 submits a column to the Justice