STRIPES age-requirement initiative waits on signatures
The organization is also celebrating its seventh anniversary.
Published Oct. 7, 2008
STRIPES received word last Wednesday from MU Administrative Services that the initiative to lower its driver age-requirement was approved but waiting on signatures.
The approval came just days before STRIPES' seven-year anniversary.
"By Wednesday, we got the go-ahead from the administration that said, 'We're going to sign this but understand that this still has to go through the bureaucracy stuff,'" STRIPES Director Domingo Pacheco said. "Now we can say that it's officially going to happen, 99 percent."
Pacheco said the age-lowering initiative has prompted an influx of volunteers, and STRIPES is becoming more of a membership-based program as a result. With this new reality will also come new policies.
"If you want to volunteer this semester, you will have to have interviewed by Nov. 1," Pacheco said. "They have to be a member. What that means is that they will have to have interviewed, they will have to have completed a background check, they will have to have gone to this orientation."
He said the standard background checks would be sent to the MU Police Department, where the applicants' driving records will be checked for any major driving violations.
Pacheco also said that if a prospective member has been cited for driving while intoxicated, or any other major driving violation, that prohibits that individual from driving, but they can still work the phones and volunteer in the passenger seats.
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Cathy Scroggs said she believes the initiative will be approved.
"We're working on the contract as we speak," Scroggs said. "We're getting close. We believe this is a great program, and we're really supportive of it."
Pacheco said if the initiative were passed, the new driver age-requirement would go into effect Nov. 1.
Pacheco said because the initiative was not in effect when the year began, funding for the expansion did not fall into their budgeting and more money would be needed to sustain the program.
MSA Senate will vote Oct. 15 on funding $4,000 of the added cost of expanding the program.
MSA Vice President Chelsea Johnson is optimistic that the funding will be approved in the Senate meeting.
"(Pacheco) and I are working on a contingency and reserve request, so we would be allocating it to STRIPES' rent/lease budget," Johnson said. "I don't really see any complications with it passing through Senate."
Pacheco also said the $4,000 from MSA will not be enough to sustain the initiative if approved.
"They plan to give us $4,000, and that makes us responsible for raising about $3,500 between now and May, so that we break even on the year, so that we don't go into any deficit," Pacheco said. "We have the ability to raise funds, so we can raise part of it."
Pacheco said there were modifications to the initiative that facilitated its approval by the university.
He said the requirement of raising the driver's age to 19 from its original proposal of 18, was prompted by the university.
"It was more of an internal thing with the university to agree to it," Pacheco said. "For them to sign off on it, it made them feel considerably much more comfortable to say, 'We're going to put 19-year-olds in a car as opposed to 18.'"
STRIPES also celebrated its seven-year anniversary on Saturday, marking more than 63,000 rides given since the organization was established, Pacheco said.
