I want to start this article off by first thanking the students who came out to vote a few weeks ago. As your new Undergraduate Student Government president, I will do all I can to reach out to you and to inform you of vital issues facing the student body. It means a lot when your peers have confidence in you. Vice President Candace Fletcher and I will do our best to make you proud.

Unfortunately, the work never ends. As you may have read, USG was presented with a plan to replace women’s night transit with an extension to the late night bus route, calling it the Saluki Express Shuttle. It is our job to find out what students think about this issue. As I campaigned, I made campus safety one of my top priorities. I feel that it is important that students are comfortable in their environment. This new service would be open to everyone, students would ride free (but not really, we pay for it through a fee) and individuals may have to walk two to four blocks to get to their destinations. While the night transit is only open to women, it does drop them off at their door.

The current set up for funding the woman’s night transit service is that it comes out of the student activity fee. If students want this change, what would happen is that the $1.45 that is taken out of the student activity fee would then go to fund the new bus program being run by Mass Transit.

I believe that if students pay into a fee they should be able to benefit from it. That is the philosophy we followed on the finance committee and it is the only one, in my opinion, that makes sense. Having said that, I will say this: Earlier this year I passed legislation in support of women’s night transit. As a man, I personally do not have an issue with spending $1.40 to make sure some young lady arrives home safely. However, I do not speak for myself, and that is why the Undergraduate Student Government needs your input. This is a vital issue with huge implications. Send me an e-mail or stop by the USG office on the third floor of the Student Center. We welcome you.

USG President Demetrous White, Jr. senior studying psychology