T he Student Safety and Security Committee recently made the decision to provide Buzz Rides with $15,000 from student fees. Because of this, SafeWalk, a non-profit student organization, did not get all of its requested funding.
Buzz Rides is a student-run business providing rides to off-campus students for free in environmentally friendly taxis. It makes revenue solely off of advertisements on the sides of its carts — and now, it’s been granted student fees.
The Student Code states the committee can only appropriate money to student organizations, excluding for-profit businesses like Buzz Rides. This decision calls to question the committee’s respect for the Student Code.
But let’s compare: Buzz Rides transported 20,000 students across Chapel Hill and Carrboro during their first year in operation. Also in that year, SafeWalk helped 9,000 students travel safely across the UNC campus.
If it were a battle of who helped more people, the winner would be clear. But it’s not about that— it’s about what student government does with student fees and what it means for the future.
Tyler Jacon, the chairman of the Student Safety and Security Committee, supported this choice as an economical decision in a previous Daily Tar Heel article — as if the money would be better spent on Buzz Rides.
Lacking this $15,000 in its first year was clearly not a deterrent to the startup, as it carried 120 passengers a night in its first semester, according to its website.
In the same DTH article, Jacon said the decision followed UNC’s promotion of student entrepreneurship. UNC can promote student entrepreneurship through school-sanctioned scholarships and programs — but it doesn’t need to use misappropriated student fees to do so.
Jacon also said they had been working with Buzz Rides for a long time and that influenced their choice. But should this be the reasoning behind setting such a precedent and determining where $15,000 of students’ tuition goes?
