After years of drastically exceeding its budget, Safe Rides, a popular A.S. Council-run service that provides stranded students with a free ride home on the weekends, now appears to have more money than it can spend.
The A.S. Council voted to boost the program’s annual funding from $17,000 to $27,000 last May to prevent it from running in the red as it has in the past. In previous years, the council was forced to repeatedly draw from budget reserves mid-year to keep the service operational.
Although the budget hike diverted funds away from other student activities, the council felt that it was worth prioritizing a program that enhanced students’ health and safety, according to A.S. Commissioner of Student Services Maurice Junious.
“We recognized that students are going to drink and put themselves in bad situations,” Junious said. “They should be able to count on their school to help them out of that situation so they don’t hurt themselves or somebody else.”
At the time, the council thought it was still providing less money than the program needed. However, this year only 739 students have registered to use Safe Rides, compared to 1,553 by the end of last year.
A series of reforms implemented by Junious and the previous commissioner, Kian Maleki, appear to have lowered the cost of the program beyond expectations.
Although he did not provide exact figures, Junious said that his records indicate a significant decrease in spending to date over this time last year.
The A.S. Council currently pays its partner, Cloud 9 Shuttle, a base rate to reserve two vehicles per night to carry students between the hours of 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. In the past, the program got expensive when high student demand forced the council to pay for additional shuttles or after-hours services.
The council began to require students to have registration cards to use Safe Rides this fall, which limits students to three rides per quarter in an attempt to curb student abuse of the service. The cards also require students to re-register for the service each year.
“Some people were using it like 12 times a quarter,” said Maleki, who began keeping close records last year so that he could identify ways to make the service more efficient. “Some were still using it after they graduated.”
Junious said the new rules are the main reason for the program’s reduced costs this year.
“Now that we’ve placed limitations on the service, people are less likely to use it for trivial matters,” Junious said. “We are learning to balance between providing students with a safety net and encouraging them to be more responsible.”
The added hassle of applying for annual cards may also be responsible for the low number of students currently registered to use the service, Junious said.
While the numbers are low, Junious said he expects them to increase as more students learn about the program throughout the year. If this happens, program expenses are likely to rise proportionally.
Maleki also overhauled the council’s contract with Cloud 9 to provide larger carrying capacity and longer driving distances for each trip, which was meant to reduce waiting times.
Because future costs are hard to predict, the council does not plan to take action to reduce the service’s funding until the budget is renegotiated next spring, according to A.S. Vice President Finance Greg Murphy.
Any unused money at the end of the year will be returned to the council’s general fund, where it can be reallocated the following year to other programs.
“Since students use this service more than any of the others, I don’t think it’s a massive sacrifice for now,” Murphy said.
Some councilmembers are relieved to see a program that has struggled in the past finally come out under budget.
“The amount of money we put into it to make it run at its full capacity — to provide a safe ride home to any UCSD student who needs it — is worth it,” Thurgood Marshall College Senior Senator Kate Pillon said.
