FAMU SGA Passes a Bill to Improve Student Transportation

Florida A&M’s Student Government Association Senate passed “The Late Nite STRIKE” Monday evening. This bill will allow buses to run late during the week and the weekends for on and off campus students.

The buses run until 10:30 p.m. during the fall and spring semesters, but that time is cut shorter to 5 p.m. during the summer term. This new bill will allow the bus to run until 2 or 3 a.m.

Any FAMU student with a campus ID card rides the service for free.

Iman Sandifer, FAMU alumna and student senator, said he thinks the bill gives the students better options when it comes to transportation.

“The bus route usually stops at 10:30 p.m. for StarMetro, so I believe it will give them the opportunity to get to the same destinations, but later,” Sandifer said.

The bill states that the Late Nite STRIKE will feature two lines: an Orange Line and a Green Line. The Orange Line will service the Venom routes provided by StarMetro, while the Green Line will service a route similar to StarMetro “M” line.

Brandon Johnson, a second-year political science student and vice chair of the Organizational and Finance Committee, said that freshmen students do not have cars and need a way to go get food when the cafe is closed. 

“With the increase in demand from students when it comes to transportation beyond the usual route, I believe that we needed to give our students another option,” Johnson said.

Paris Pittman, a first-year FAMU criminal justice student, said that she is excited about the new bus routes and schedule.

I feel like it would benefit the students a lot because if you have somewhere you need to be at a later time you don’t have to worry about the buses not being able to pick you up,” Pittman said.

According to the bill, there will be a mobile application called “TransLoc” that tracks vehicles in real-time from GPS data and provides arrival predictions and transit information on the web.

Sandifer plans to broadcast this bill through various campus outlets such as the FAMUAN, Journey Magazine and WANM 90.5.

For now, the bill is only set to last until summer session B 2016, but the Senate is working on the longevity for what they feel is a necessity to FAMU.