Cabs on Campus canceled, for now

By Cara Quackenbush

After a little more than four months in operation, Cabs On Campus has been terminated in its current form.

At a meeting Tuesday, the Center for Student Life, which made the ultimate decision, cited student abuse of the system and a lack of funding to support the steadily increasing demand for the service.

Created by Santa Clarans Against Drunk Driving (SCADD), the service was established to prevent drunk driving and provide safe transportation to students.

"The reality is that SCADD doesn't have the funds to pay for the program," Assistant Dean of Student Life Matthew Duncan said. "In order to keep them from accruing more debt we had to stop the service."

Dean of Student Life Jeanne Rosenberger also noted that many students have been using the service for purposes other than its intended use, which has proven costly.

But senior Melanie Lundin, who founded the program last year after her sister was killed by a drunk driver, said the decision is unfortunate and believes that Cabs On Campus can continue operation until the more permanent service is put in place.

"I think it's unnecessary," she said. "I know we have enough student and SCADD support to keep the current service going throughout the transition to a permanent system."

The service woks by supplementing Santa Clara Cab Company rides to local bars with vouchers of up to $5 on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday nights. While $5 can take a student as far as downtown San Jose, more than 90 percent of students have used the service as transportation to off-campus bars such as The Hut, The Claran and C and J's.

The service kicked off Oct. 12 with an initial contribution of $1000 from the Center for Student Life, with the understanding that the leaders of SCADD would provide as much as it could to keep the service going through fundraisers.

Since that time, SCADD has raised $5,760 through many fundraisers and donations. These include "SCADD Nights" at local venues including Stuft Pizza, The Hut and CandJ's. These and other businesses have pledged to contribute between 7 percent and 15 percent of their profits for a set amount of time to the organization. The service also received a donation of more than $1000 from the Washtenaw Community College of Ann Arbor, Mich., where Lundin's father, a best-selling business author, gave a speech.

This fundraising, however, has proven insufficient to cover the growing demand for the program's large bill, which has grown from $905 after the first month to nearly $1,300.

Lundin sees this growth as proof of how necessary a drunk driving prevention service is at Santa Clara. Fearing Tuesday's decision, she took the initiative over the weekend to survey 160 students who have used the service and found shocking results.

"The surveys show that prior to Cabs On Campus, drunk driving was much worse than I thought," Lundin said.

All 160 survey respondents agreed that Cabs On Campus has reduced the amount of drunk driving at Santa Clara University and about 68 percent said that they would consider getting behind the wheel or riding with someone when they could possibly be over the legal alcohol limit.

"So many of my friends used to get behind the wheel because the bars are so close," responded one student. "Cabs On Campus takes away any excuse for drunk driving an makes people more aware of its impact."

Other survey respondents praised the program for its practicality.

"In the four years I've been here, I think that this is one of the few programs that addressed a problem in a manner that is viable for realistic goals and is implemented in a non-hostile manner. I hope it is maintained," a senior said of the service in the survey.

The service is failing only because it was so much of a success, said Lundin.

"Seeing how much this has taken off proves to me how much drunk driving was going on before," Lundin said. "Since the convenience factor and economic factor is being taken away, I am convinced students will revert to their old behaviors."

Ultimately, said Lundin, the University must decide whether to create a permanent preventative drunk-driving service on campus, and if so how to keep up with the large demand.

Since Tuesday's decision to cancel Cabs On Campus, SCADD has been given a faculty supervisor, Jon Gray, director of the Center for Student Leadership. By working with Gray, Lundin is optimistic about having a similar service available for students when they return from spring break.

Ultimately, said Lundin, the University must decide whether to create a permanent preventative drunk-driving service on campus, and if so how to keep up with the large demand.

The Office of Student Life is looking at all possibilities, according to Duncan.

"There's more to this than just shuttling students around who are under the influence of alcohol. We're looking at it from a broader perspective," Duncan said.

This broader perspective might eventually include a shuttle service as used at other schools that may also travel to Valley Fair Mall, the movie theater and other popular destinations for students who do not have transportation of their own.

In the meantime, both Duncan and Lundin hope that students will continue to use the cab company.

"There's nothing preventing a student from calling Santa Clara Cab Co. and utilizing their service," Duncan said.

Roenberger praised the vision and hard work of Lundin and the rest of SCADD and said that the purpose of the service continues to be important as it was initially designed.

"SCADD has done great things," Rosenberger said. "They're due all the credit for establishing the program. Now it's up to us to decide: how can we make this work?"

SCADD continues to be committed to drunk driving prevention at Santa Clara and already has a number of upcoming fund-raisers and donation pledges. Over the next quarter, the group intends to go after local businesses for donations and sell T-shirts, among other plans.

"Now that we've proven this need, we need to come up a permanent solution that does not involve outsourcing," Lundin said. "This is not the end of drunk driving prevention services at Santa Clara, it is just the beginning."