In the lead up to the voting days for Student Government Association’s (SGA) 2019 Election, one slate claims to be nearing completion on a platform point.
Elevate’s platform point advocating for adding one more Blue Loop bus was tested out. Ball State’s Transportation Services performed a trial run by having an additional Blue Loop bus run for three hours Thursday morning.
Aiden Medellin, presidential candidate of Elevate, said the slate met with Sue Weller, director of Facilities Business Services and Transportation, Feb. 20 to discuss his slates’ platform points dealing with transportation.
“[Elevate] made a good case about needing another blue loop bus,” Weller said. “I said we’d certainly look at it.”
“Little did I know that the trial would be today,” Medellin said. “[Weller] did not tell me that they were going to try and do the second Blue Loop bus today.”
Weller said she was out riding the Blue Loop bus that was being trialed.
“This was just a preliminary test so that we could see how many riders there were on a cold Thursday morning on Blue Loop,” Weller said.
She said Transportation Services previously tested out an additional Blue Loop bus in Fall 2018.
Medellin said he presented running the trial again in the Winter because he felt there were probably more students wanting to ride the bus in the winter instead of walking outside.
“We haven’t done an evaluation yet because we have to wait till the end of the day to get all the information from the other blue loop bus so that we can compare with the two buses to when just one bus runs,” she said.
She said Transportation Services was going to have a look at the number of riders, the time of the day and how the cost fits within its budget perimeters.
“My slate is already doing work that is going to benefit the student body here on campus,” Medellin said. “After one meeting alone, I can say that me and my slate have effectively almost completed a platform point.”
“It really speaks to our slate and the work that we are going to do should we get elected,” he said.
Contact Rohith Rao with comments at rprao@bsu.edu or on Twitter @RaoReports.