About a week before the spring semester started, all University of New Haven students received an email from Julie Carbonella regarding the changes to the shuttle schedule for the spring semester.

While the previous schedule had two Dattco shuttles running to transport students to and from off-campus housing or downtown on the weekends there is now only one Dattco shuttle and one courtesy van performing these operations.

The email also informs students that the shuttle and courtesy van will be running at the same times as previous semesters. The only other major change is that the downtown shuttle will now drop students off at University-sponsored housing after midnight on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

Carbonella explained that the thought process behind these changes was simple: a study found that there weren’t enough student riders to need two Dattco shuttles, and therefore, using them was a waste of energy.

While Carbonella says that the times for the shuttles to run haven’t changed, Danielle Cardone, a junior Forensic Science Biology major who lives at the Savin Street Apartments, agrees with a myriad of other students that say the shuttle “never shows up on time.”

Another Savin resident, Krystle Pierce, a junior studying Forensic Science and Biology, explains that she needs to “go downtown just to go home.” A group of students got together and spoke with me about complaints regarding the courtesy van, stating that it’s “a tight fit,” “hard to get into,” “it sucks,” and, overall, is “awful.”

“The courtesy van driver picked up a random guy on the street by the cemetery,” said Gabriella Pericone, a senior majoring in Forensic Science and Environmental Science.

Julie Schneidenbach, a junior who lives at the Main Street Apartments, shared stories of the shuttle stopping at Shop Rite while her roommates were on it and the shuttle driver not following the schedule, but instead asking students where they were going. She adds that she “never knows when to rely on it,” so she just avoids taking it.

Carbonella claims that campus police has received no complains about these shuttle changes; however, students seem to be extremely upset about them.

If you are interested in filing a complaint you can contact Carbonella at 203-932-7013 or [email protected]. You can also call campus police at 203-932-7014 to report a complaint/emergency live if something is happening at that moment.