Student Government Association’s (SGA) Safe Rides Initiative has made it so students can get rides through Uber between 9:30 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. The rides will be available for students to travel within the Fargo-Moorhead area. Students get a $4 discount and can use the discount on two rides a month. Students will receive a survey in their email each semester that they can fill out if they want to participate in the safe rides program.
The creator of this program is Brayden Sorenson, director of communication for SGA. Sorenson was inspired to create this program when he first looked into the drinking and driving rates on campus.
“There was a survey that came out about student drinking habits. Students reported drinking and driving was 13.5 percent. Then I did some research and looked at other school programs. After that I talked to an Uber representative who works on these programs,” he said.
Students can use this program when they need a ride home after they have been drinking. SGA President Sara Villalobos talked about the purpose of this program and its importance for students.
“The biggest takeaway from the Safe Rides initiative is that we want Cobbers to have safe and reliable transportation as they go out and have fun. We recognize that college students will go out and drink and have fun, and that’s okay. Students should feel safe and secure when seeking transportation,” she said.
It is important to prevent drinking and driving and help students get home safely, but the Safe Ride Initiative is for any students who need a safe ride when it’s late at night. Sorenson mentioned that the goal of this program is to keep students from driving while drunk, but overall he wanted to give students access to a ride back to campus when the Matbus is closed and other transportation might not be available. These Uber rides will also be at a discount, so this program is also made to help students to be able to have more access to safe transportation at a lower cost.
Sorenson also talked about where he would like to see the program go in the future, in SGA and on-campus as a whole.
“I would like to see it become a recurring program, but right now it is in the Special Projects Fund. I would also like to see it be a yearly thing and open it up to more hours than what it is now,” he said.
Georgia Wachtler, Program and Events Commissioner for SGA, discussed what she thought of the initiative and how it is a good program for students.
“I think this a spectacular initiative because it gives Concordia students more of an opportunity to be safe during the cold winter months. This is important and is something Concordia students should definitely have access to,” Wachtler said.
Sorenson wants students to make sure they fill out the form each semester because it starts the program new each semester and he wants to make sure students get a chance to use it who want to use it. Wachtler encourages students to make sure they use this program and to take advantage of this discount. For more information on the rides, students can go to concordiasga.wixsite.com/cordsga/saferides.
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