GETTING ON THE BUS: OTHER COMMUNITIES HAVE BENEFITTED FROM UNIVERSITY BUS SYSTEM

When City Councilman Melvin Gateley asked Southeast Missouri State University officials whether they would consider expanding the university shuttle system to serve other parts of Cape Girardeau, he didn't know about Carbondale.

When he found out, he was pleasantly surprised.

Until two years ago, Carbondale had no public transportation except taxis. Now it has a public transportation system based at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale that has substantial ridership from the public.

Ken Dobbins, executive vice president of the university, said that was a possibility. In Carbondale, however, the initiative for the bus system came not from the university administration or the city council, but from the students.

Once in the 1970s and twice in the 1980s, the students passed referendums favoring setting up a bus system for students paid for from student fees, said Sean Borman, a systems analyst with Saluki Express, the bus system. The system didn't start until August 1995, after the university's trustees approved, he said.

Currently, students pay $21 a semester for the the bus service. They ride for free with a valid ID. The general public can ride for 50 cents a trip.