OPINION: Wolfline can serve Fraternity and Sorority Life better

Last week, NCSU Transportation announced that they will increase parking passes in order to fund large scale projects, especially for the Wolfline. As a first-year student and member of NC State’s Greek Life, I was elated to hear that the bus system would be improved for all students. However, the largest projects of these include “deck repairs, repaving of lots, LED lighting upgrades,” and did not directly improve the Wolfline’s access for students like I thought it would.

Specifically, the Wolfline does not serve the Greek Life community at NC State as well as it could. Understanding that the Greek Village renovation project is underway and a handful of fraternities and sororities have already moved into new houses on Greek Village Drive, it is crucial that NCSU Transportation use some of the funds they are collecting and focus on extending one of the Wolfline bus routes to serve Greek Life students.

Students involved in Greek Life at NC State make up about 13% of the population with most organizations requiring students to live in their chapter houses at some point during their college career. Due to the fact that these organizations fall under the jurisdiction of the university, specifically the Department of Fraternity and Sorority Life, similar to how living and learning villages or other organizations are overseen by the administration, the university needs to actively help this student population and not ignore the issues and problems they face.

Currently, there are multiple bus routes that circle the Greek Village area such as Gorman St. (9), Centennial Link (10), and Village Link (11). Although these routes are near the Greek Village, their stops are either at the Mckimmon Center or on Varsity Dr which can be a ten to fifteen minute walk to reach the bus stop.

NCSU Transportation could easily extend one of these bus routes to drive through Greek Village and stop at a central location within the neighborhood. For example, the Wolfline can have a pickup point in front of the Alpha Delta Pi chapter house and continue to Varsity Drive to continue its normal route.

Logistically, this edition would require some slight transformations of the bus route and times associated but they would be very minimal and not drastically change any route. To finance the change and any possible fees associated, NCSU Transportation can use the extra revenue that they earn with the increased parking pass fees next year.

By using the money students spend to increase transportation access to hundreds of students without free transport, then NCSU Transportation is accomplishing their mission to “improve the quality of life for the NC State University community by providing seamless and sustainable transportation systems with excellent customer service.”

Unlike LED lights or deck repairs, although still important, this very simple adjustment is a more direct impact that will benefit students as compared to the indirect impacts associated with the other large scale projects. If students are paying more for their parking passes, then they should be receiving direct benefits in terms of transportation access. This increase in revenue gives NCSU Transportation the means to provide this service to a group of students without it before it drives students away.