As a means for students to travel through snow, the Blue Loop normally starts running after Winter Break, but this year it began taking students around campus before the end of Fall Semester.
Sue Weller, director of Facilities Business Services and Transportation, said the decision to launch the Blue Loop on Monday so it could run an extra three weeks before Winter Break was easy.
"[The Student Government Association] had made the request, and they've been really supportive of the student bus service," she said. "Last year, the Blue Loop numbers were terrific. It was really used last winter. The ridership seemed to say, ‘This makes sense.'"
Weller said it costs an extra $2,200 to run the Blue Loop from this week until the end of the semester. Facilities Planning and Management is able to keep the price down by assigning student drivers to the loop because the university puts a $9 an hour pay cap on student employees.
"We are using students on that route so that does keep the costs down because ... the university doesn't have to pay FICA for [student employees,]" she said.
STUDENT INVOLVEMENT
Gary Moses, bus operations supervisor, said about 700 people rode the Blue Loop each day last year. The stops extend to not only the residence halls on the east side of campus, but also to some houses where students live off campus.
Moses said people were on the Blue Loop as soon as it began at 8:40 a.m. on Monday.
SGA representatives worked last year to extend the Blue Loop. Members have thrown around the idea of making the Blue Loop a year round fixture like the Green and Red loops.
Kayla Stanton, SGA president, said student government has pushed to make the Blue Loop more accessible for the students.
"It's not just something that a few people in [SGA] senate or the [executive board] realized was needed," she said. "We actually went out to students and found out what students needed. So really this is what the students wanted. We want to bring it to them. That's our job."
Grace Chinn, a senior hospitality major, said she appreciates that Ball State has the Blue Loop during cold weather months.
"We're college students, so it would be great if it ran all year, but if I had to choose between seasons [for it to run], I would definitely choose the winter," she said.
SGA off-campus caucus member Sean Bergman said he thinks the Blue Loop keeps morale up for students who don't want to walk in the snow.
"I think it's very beneficial because a lot of people have classes at the same time, and a lot of times you can't get a ride so now you have a way of getting to campus easier, and it keeps you motivated," he said.
If the Blue Loop was year-round, it would cost about $24,000 per year. Weller said a year-round Blue Loop isn't feasible because it is meant to take students home during cold months.
HOW THE BLUE LOOP BEGAN
The Blue Loop was originally a product of Muncie Indiana Transit System. MITS said it would no longer run the Blue Loop unless Ball State paid for it about six or seven years ago, Weller said.
Facilities Planning and Management decided to continue the Blue Loop because students used it enough. Weller said she was surprised at first because the shuttle buses weren't meant to take students to their on-campus homes.
"Our bus system has never been a bus system," she said. "It is really a parking shuttle. The whole reason the parking shuttles exist are when the students had to start parking out at the football stadium and that at the South parking lot."
Weller said she doesn't see why the Blue Loop will go away now that students depend on it. She said it is beneficial for more than just students.
"Hopefully that is fewer students that are having to drive to campus," she said. "That is fewer pollutants that are up and down McKinley [Avenue]. I do think it is beneficial, but it is really just supposed to be during the really cold weather so that students in residence halls that are east of campus would be able to get to campus."
The Blue Loop will run until March 2.
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