Whether it’s viewed as a safety measure or simply a convenient plus, the Campus Safety Shuttle at Keene State College is getting students places. The shuttle, which normally runs Monday through Thursday 7:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., Saturday afternoons and Sunday evenings, brings students to and from nearly every store or restaurant in Keene and any area of KSC grounds.
Shuttle driver, John Janacki, has spent four semesters driving KSC students around and only recalled a few times there were issues during his work shifts. Janacki explained he had once helped a student who sought him out after he took “a substance he shouldn’t have.”
“He walked up and he said, ‘I need some help’,” according to Janacki, so the shuttle brought the student to a medical center in Keene. Later that night, after leaving the center, the student was doing well, Janacki said.
Jill Tague / Equinox Staff
Students who don’t require emergency ambulance transportation have called the shuttle in order to get rides to urgent care facilities. According to Janacki, those students who seek transportation to medical facilities usually have a friend accompanying them, which is an assurance for Janacki that the student is in good hands and has some support.
Support and safety are the two main concerns Janacki has when traveling with KSC students. He pointed out that while the shuttle typically drives students to and from places like Target, Michaels, restaurants and grocery stores, a lot of the role of the shuttle driver is to look after students. Janacki said safety is one of the key factors in transporting students from the Winchester parking lot.
He described what the walkway from Walmart back to campus grounds is like in the evening, and said “it’s not terribly long, but it’s a dark road, you pass over the river there; a lot of people don’t care for that walk, and I don’t blame them.”
For this reason, Janacki encouraged students to use the shuttle services to get back to their residential halls safely. Freshman Josh Leblanc uses the shuttle for this reason, as his personal vehicle is parked a mile from his residential hall and he doesn’t want to walk that distance at night.
Leblanc said he uses the shuttle about twice a week in the evening. Janacki explained that Leblanc is on the KSC baseball team, and is one of many “regulars” that make use of the shuttle.
Not only is the shuttle service part of a safety net for students, but it also has a patrol factor to it. Driving around so many different areas each night, Janacki said he’s seen a few things while driving students around. One evening, he was able to spot someone who’d been on the run from Campus Safety officers and police. Since the radio feedback for the Keene Police Department and Campus Safety are both on at all times in the shuttle, Janacki was able to keep track of this student’s whereabouts and thus, he was caught.
Janacki said a number of his regulars request the shuttle to fetch them after their work shifts have come to an end. “I have one young lady who has four part-time jobs, the average seems to be two. Everybody seems to work really hard, a lot of the folks who come back very late up here are coming from a job,” he said.
Min-jee Pae, a freshman, requested transportation from Target back to a residential hall with her friends. When asked why she chose to be a passenger in the shuttle vehicle, she said she and her friends felt the walk was far too long and the weather was too cold to travel such a distance. She pointed out there are dangerous intersections and explained that she wouldn’t have gone to Target at all had there not been a Campus Safety van to bring them back to campus.
Junior Ashlynn Cedrone is a frequent Campus Safety shuttle passenger.
She has to get rides to Wal-mart or Target often for art supplies, as she’s an art major. When asked what she would do without the Campus Safety transportation, she explained that she has a car, or “death trap,” as she worded it, and a bike as well. Without the vehicle services, though, she said “It would be inconvenient because a lot of times I’ll have big canvasses and stuff, and I can’t carry all that on a bike.”
Janacki said this year, ridership has gone up. Janacki explained he works hard at informing people of the shuttle, but said, “to this day, I still find an awful lot of people who don’t know that we’re out there.”
As far as numbers go, the Campus Safety shuttle is “averaging between somewhere just under two hundred [students] a week at the moment in total, but I [Janacki] can imagine that will pick up as the weather goes south. It gets colder and snowier and so-forth,” Janacki said.
Janacki said he doesn’t deal much at all with KSC students being problematic while using the shuttle. “There’s a little bit of partying that’s going on, but they’re young people. They’re supposed to do that,” he said, “If somebody calls me from a restaurant that’s had a few drinks, that doesn’t mean I’m not going to pick them up, I’d rather pick them up.”
Janacki pointed out that despite how much is out in the media about young adults being a hassle, “I’m continually impressed with how well-spoken, polite and interesting all the kids [KSC students] are.”
Brittany Ballantyne can be contacted at bballantyne@keene-equinox.com