Meghan Cain, Staff

My friends and I went downtown for restaurant week recently and decided to make a night of it, walking around the city, browsing stores and taking in the night life rather than just eating dinner and coming straight back to campus. We checked the La Salle app to see when the shuttle would be coming and the app said the shuttle comes to the Septa stop each hour at :15 :55 and :35, and that on Fridays and Saturdays it runs until 3:00 am. We were under the impression that it didn’t matter how late we got back, knowing that we could take a shuttle back to our townhouse, so we took our time and enjoyed the night rather than trying to rush back to make sure we got home safe. 

We got to the stop at 8:50 and waited the five minutes for the shuttle to get there. La Salle took the shuttle tracker service off of the app, which we were disappointed to see, as we couldn’t tell if the shuttle was running on time or late and we didn’t want to be standing around in the dark waiting for it, especially not knowing how long it would take. A shuttle came at around 9:00 and unloaded a van full of students, then we got on. The driver told us we were lucky that that group had asked to be taken to the Septa stop, or else we would have been waiting for a long time before needing to just walk back in the dark. He informed us that La Salle had changed the shuttle hours and the shuttle now only runs until 9:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, but that it actually stops at the 8:15 p.m. cycle so that it can be finished its trip on time to get gas and make it back before 9:00 p.m. We told him that La Salle didn’t have that posted on the shuttle service page, and that we weren’t informed that the schedule changed. If this information was posted anywhere, it wasn’t made known. The driver informed us that communication hasn’t been clear between La Salle and public safety either, and that he wasn’t informed right away when the schedule had changed. He seemed disappointed in La Salle’s lack of communication.

I find this to be irresponsible on La Salle’s behalf, knowing that weekends are when students plan on staying out later, and that it is dangerous for them to be standing around waiting for the shuttle in our neighborhoods, which are  often receiving reports of violence. I am disappointed in La Salle for the lack of communication about important information such as this, and for the lack of care given to its students that are relying on the shuttle system for safety. We pay a lot of money to attend this school, so I think that at the very least we deserve proper communication.