User:SDUI

Problem

San Diego State University is located in college area as we all know, which is not necessarily a prime location for nightlife. DUI's are a harsh reality for many SDSU student's, especially those who live in college area. Overall many students do not choose to pay the $50-$80 round trip fare to North Park, downtown or Pacific Beach. Due to this high travel expenditure for a night of fun on the time, many students are faced with a night in jail, the hospital and the unfortunate chance of fatality to themselves, loved one's or an innocent bystander. The estimated end all be all cost of a DUI is $45,435. This includes the hike in insurance of the next 10 years, lawyer/court fees,.....This large sum does not include the damage it does to your work future, everyday life and even student life since SDSU is notified when you do, in fact, receive a DUI. We all know many of our friends and family who have one, if not ourselves or experienced the tragedy of losing a loved one due to an individual driving under the influence. According to the California Office of Traffic Safety, last year's holiday season resulted in 774 DUI arrests in San Diego County alone. College students need to an economically feasible, safe alternative to make it safety home after a few drinks. Whether or not we take action to do something about this, students will keep drinking and driving. This previous summer while visiting Montana State University in Bozeman, I visited the equivalent of Garnet in Pacific Beach and bar hopped down the main drag with my cousins. After eating a late night snack my cousin, he suggested we take the drunk bus home. I was shocked and amazed at what this possibly could be. I came to find that such a creation was actually funded by the University, part of each student's semesterly fees. The bus was free of charge and made a loop throughout the night past the bars to various locations throughout the town. After learning about such an option I began to wish SDSU had something like this to offer to their students. Both UCSD and USD have specific bus services for their students, not necessarily for nightlife but at least have the option to get student around town. Due to SDSU's size I believe that with the right foundation and organization such a program could be successfully implemented into our university. If a small town in Montana could offer this to their students, why could SDSU not do the same thing?

Solution

For Fall 2011, there are 30,541 students on campus. We propose that a small fee be applied to all students as a part of their semesterly associated student fees in order to fund and support our nightlife bus program. The first course of action we would take in order to create awareness and support for out program would be to apply for our SDUI Bus Program to be recognized by the University. Our advisor would be Peter Manley, who would be guiding us along through the implementation of our idea. After we successfully create our organization we would first have a fundraiser at Woodstock Pizza on El Cajon Blvd in order to raise money to market our cause and get students to stand behind it. To let students know about our fundraiser we would have a table at each the farmer's market on thursdays with information regarding our program and a petition to begin getting signatures from students. Our team members would have shirts, hand out flyers and do t-shirt give aways and Fred's Burrito Bucks for taking information sheet. To create even further awareness our team members would create a Facebook page promoting our organization and have the option for students to sign their name with their red ID online to further boost our signature list. Once we reach our goal of 2,500 signatures we would then give our proposal to SDSU staff to see if we would have the option of giving our students a chance to vote on a minimal fee increase in order to fund our program. If our proposal makes it that far we would also look to have a quick tv segment on Channel 10 in order to let the community know that we are standing up and looking for a way to keep San Diegan's and students safer while on the road.

Since SDSU is also a green campus looking to sustain ourselves in anyway possible we would be looking to purchase our first bus with an Enova system. Enova System's is located in Torrance, CA amd is the leader in electric and hybrid drive systems for commercial trucks and buses. The implementation of an Enova system into a commercial bus would be ideal for SDSU students bus program to lower emissions and the price of fuel. Each Enova system has an average 37% fuel reduction, and 35% to 70% reduction in emissions. Once the initial purchase of the bus is made, the remainder of the money collected from students' fees would be used for fuel, bus drivers and security personnel who would be present on the bus at all times. The safety for our students body is the overall idea and goal of this program.

In order to get everyone's attention, we put on Daily Aztec an advertising. It's a the fast way to convey our We also create a website on which there will be a vote sheet for everyone to sign up.

Benefits

A nightlife bus program is very helpful for everyone in school. A night life bus program will also create a better image for students. Students drink a lot during holidays and after exams. Taking a the bus will reduce the numbers of students driving. The possibility of getting in car accidents driving under influence then will decrease also. There will be no ugly pictures posted on our school website that show how students could not control themselves when they get drunk. No more being made fun up when they wake up. No more worries about what damaged they have done when they were out of control.

A nightlife bus ride helps students save cost. Students are careless when it comes to drinking. The damage for driving is unpredictable. A nightlife bus ride home can prevent them from getting a ticket from DUI, getting injured from car accident. It also spares them a night in the hospital, or even worse a night in jail. Not to mention that driving under influence can lead to fatality. Moreover, taking a nightlife bus ride can help student have a clean record from DMV. In the long run, it saves them the possible raise in insurance, as well as the fees for lawyer or court.

Approval for nightlife bus also involves in campus police work in a positive way. They don't have to worry about the fighting on campus when students get drunk. There will be less checkpoints stops be made. The fee for that activity then will be used for the purchase and maintain the nightlife bus program.

Operating a nightlight bus program will also make the school environment greener. Beside the fact that Enova bus system is electric, when students take the bus, it means less fuel use and air pollution. This will help school to meet SDSU goal for a green campus.

There will be job opportunity for many people in community as well. Positions such as bus driver or secutrity personel are available.

Last but not least, a nightlife bus program give will give a peace of mind for the parents and friends when their children, roommates go out and have fun. A nightlife bus ride will bring them home safe and sound.

Works Cited http://www.enovasystems.com/home.html bloodalcoholcalculator.com http://www.californiaavoid.org/statistics.php?county=21&holiday=4&year=2010&Submit=Get+Statistics http://www.enovasystems.com/home.html http://www.chp.ca.gov/