SA takes steps to curb van misuse

Despite continuing student skepticism over how the Student Association uses its fleet of vans, SA officials say they have kept misuse to a minimum.

While the occasional student will still see the vans rolling both on and off campus past midnight and wonder what SA is doing at 1 a.m., the office logbooks show nothing out of the ordinary.

According to Mark Sorel, SA's administrative director, SA did have problems several years back with abuse of the vans, which were paid for with student funds. Since then, van allocation has been tightly watched, even if it is impossible to entirely limit extraneous usage.

Some students say they feel there's no excuse for the vans to be roaming at odd hours for unintended purposes.

"I was coming off a shift at two (in the morning) as a public safety aid, when I was nearly hit by an SA van," said Adam Rifkin, a senior psychology and sociology major. "I later emailed SA to inquire about this and have yet to receive anything."

Jessica Klapa, a sophomore biochemical pharmacology major, said she doesn't believe SA keeps track of the vans well enough, as some students allege that SA students have used the vans for alcohol runs and personal excursions.

"They're wasting student money and that's not right," Klapa said.

According to Nick Kasprzak, transportation manager for SA, only minor incidents have been reported during his two years overseeing the six-van fleet.

"Nothing of that severity has come to my attention," he said. "We have had minor problems of course. I mean, students can see huge dents in the van's sides, but those are results of simple fender-benders, mostly getting hit in their own parking spots during the winter."

SA has had the vans since 2002, when it purchased the Dodge Caravans for $97,200. The first van was a donation to the club ski team, which spurred the idea that SA should have a fleet.

In recent months SA members have used the vans to deliver copies of Visions to South Campus, drive to Binghamton to play in a men's club rugby game, go camping in Niagara County and transport equipment around campus for Fall Fest.

NYS University Police declined to comment on SA van activity.

Usually, the vans are out for one to three days at a time. The only people with keys are Sorel and Kasprzak, who keep van use in check with an office logbook and several different forms which must be filled out to take a van.

"To get a van, there's a bit of a process," Kasprzak said. "Of course the process is not meant to discourage. It is meant to insure safety."

If there were any current problems, SA President Dela Yador said he would confront incidents seriously.

"We would need to find out exactly what happened. We would investigate who was misusing it and revoke the van permit," he said. "But having such a process should allow access to responsible students."

When used appropriately, the vans remain an asset, especially for clubs and sports teams.

"It would be very useful for transportation to club events," said Lacey James, a LGBTA member and junior psychology major. "Large groups of people involved don't own cars, so the SA vans will be very useful."

But some students, like Klapa, are still suspicious their mandatory student fee is going to waste.

"Campus streets are already filled with crappy drivers," Klapa said. "We shouldn't have to worry about SA vans too."

Because of insurance reasons, those who drive the SA vans are required to pass a test, and each driver was retested this semester, Sorel said. The test, which is administered by Kasprzak, is similar to a driver's license road test, except the person needs to be over 20 years old and an SA member.

"It is a first come, first serve basis and requires a club to fill out a request form. This paperwork includes a club proposal so that we know they're not lying about what they are doing with the van," Kasprzak said.

The price of gas these days is also a concern for critics of the vans, but SA does not foot the entire gas bill. Most of the van users pay out-of-pocket to return them with full gas tanks.

"We keep them full and they return them full. That is the policy. And if that isn't done, the club is billed with a penalty," Kasprzak said.

Despite the possibility of misuse, Yador said he remains positive about the resource.

"Clubs use them every week so that sports can get to their games and clubs can go shopping for events," he said. "The vans are very important to students, but more importantly they must be used responsibly."