This Friday, the Wesleyan Bike Rental Program (WesBikes) will continue to promote sustainable transportation. Wesbikes will provide 25 bicycles for rental to students for whom purchasing on-campus bicycles is unfeasible for a range of geographical and financial reasons.
This semester, WesBikes has been deferred funding twice to expand its fleet from 25 to 40 bicycles, despite 91 students signing up for the program. This means that 66 students will not receive bicycles on Friday, despite having demonstrated need and interest well in advance. The Campus Initiatives Fund (CIF) Committee, comprised of four executive committee members of the WSA—President, Vice President, and SBC and FiFac Chairs–has denied the WesBikes student group expansionary funding based on a “majority vote.”
The student group submitted the initial request a week before spring break, adhering as closely as possible to the guidelines set out in the Campus Initiatives Fund request form. We contacted certain members of the committee before spring break to answer any questions they had and expedite the time-sensitive process. Almost a week later, we received the first deferral, saying the committee was “concerned about the institutional and administrative support for the program.”
In the first semester, the program did not run into any issues with the Student Accounts office—rents were paid for the bicycles and damages were charged. In terms of bicycle maintenance, the WesBikes has maintained strong connections with Pedal Power on Main Street, as well as the Legit bicycle cooperation. Physical Plant has pledged to provide storage space for 50 bicycles, beyond the proposed expansion number of 40, and Public Safety applauds the program’s emphasis on bicycle safety, and has shown willingness to assist us in increasing the number of bike racks to increase biking on campus. In spite of compelling evidence that WesBikes has sound administrative support, we received the second deferral, saying the committee voted to “defer the immediate funding of the program’s expansion until WesBikes’ administrative foundation is further developed.”
There are few concrete reasons why funding has been deferred. To our understanding, the proposed increase of administrative control by university-paid officers would be antithetical to the independent spirit of student groups at Wesleyan. After all, the funding student groups receive is student money collected in the $270-per-year Student Activities Fee every student–not the administration—pays. Our request wasn’t even made from this year’s SBC budget but last year’s surplus, which was turned into the “Campus Initiatives Fund.” This entire process leads us to ask: What is the WSA doing with our money? If they’re not funding student groups that have demonstrated broad student interest, what are they doing? Moreover, by insisting that perhaps another sustainability intern should be hired to oversee the administration of the program, they have shown that they would rather spend money on increasing the bureaucratization of an already successful program, rather than increasing the number of students that a program benefits.
We urge the CIF Committee to review its priorities in terms of making sure students are more involved in the decision making process, and how money is allocated to on-campus programs to better serve the student body. We also encourage those who desire to see the expansion and continuity of this program to express their views on the matter at the WSA meeting this Sunday at 7pm in Usdan 108, or directly to the members of the committee: Micah Feiring ‘11 (mfeiring@wesleyan.edu), Benjamin Firke ‘12 (bfirke@wesleyan.edu), Andrew Huynh ‘11 (ahuynh@wesleyan.edu), and Zachary Malter ‘13 (zmalter@wesleyan.edu).
Charmaine Chen ‘12 and Chi Le ‘13 are Co-Directors of the WesBikes Program.
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