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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Thursday, March 28, 2024

Ending of OCL van service not as bad as it seems

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The Office of Campus Life (OCL) recently announced that it will be taking its vans out of service. The OCL vans have been used in the past by campus clubs, academic departments and other organizations for their activities. While many students may call discontinuation of the rental vans a bad decision, the OCL is making the right move.

The office's vans have served their purpose of transporting students up, down and away from the Hill for many years now. But upkeep for the vans, which are “well over twelve years old” according to OCL Director Joe Golia, has become much too expensive for their services, which were only employed by a few organizations last semester.

Students may be concerned that this will make transportation more difficult to find, but the administration has done good work in finding a suitable and accessible substitute for the OCL vans through the expansion of Zipcar on campus. The administration recently negotiated a change in the rules for using Zipcars on campus, which will now allow students 18 years and older to use Zipcars, as opposed to the old rule which only allowed students 21 years of age or older. The school will also not have to spend money on the upkeep of the vehicles and the OCL will hopefully be able to save money to put to better use elsewhere.

Tufts students have expressed concern about getting off campus. Many students are aware of the “Tufts bubble” that, in the midst of a busy semester, prevents students from getting out and about as much as they’d like. Last year, the Tufts Transit Coalition grew into a significant force for reform on campus to address that problem. While the OCL changes may look like a step back, if the administration fills that need with Zipcars (and the rarer but more spacious Zipvans) students will have more and better ways to get around than they did with just the OCL vans.

Though the university is right to make this decision and has covered its bases in terms of preparing campus for the aftermath, there will be a continued need for transportation infrastructure on campus. This is especially true for groups like the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC), which in the past has used the OCL vans to get to meetings that are not easily accessible by T. The hiring of a new transportation / fleet manager is an important step -- and the university should look to expand transportation options further.

Students should take this change as a moment of opportunity. As the university plans to change its transportation offerings, we should look forward to expanding our horizons outside of Tufts.