“We’re trying to get students to downtown Troy, and we’re trying to do it in realistic ways,” said Benghanem, who is a senator from the Class of 2005. “We’re trying to give them incentive.”

Benghanem said that while no one thinks that students will start making their way down the hill en masse, the groups working toward this goal hope that they will be able to attract at least a few more students than those that currently patronize the businesses in the area. She has been working closely with the Troy Business Association, as it is the largest of its kind in the city, and said that their reaction has been one of total support. “They’ve been very welcoming. They keep saying, ‘Why wasn’t this done before?’” she explained.

As has been worked out with the administration department, the new shuttles will be running Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning and afternoon, but the exact time has not yet been worked out. While the CDTA runs until 3 am, Benghanem said she hopes that the new shuttles will be operating until 4.

“They’re doing some test runs, see what will be the most appropriate time, but it still needs to be modified,” she said.

In order to finance the new buses in part, each student will pay one dollar more on their tuition. Preliminary proposals had added it into the activity fee students pay to the Union, but it will instead be paid directly to the administration department. Other funds, on the order of $50,000, were made available from grants organized by the Office of the First Year Experience and the Health Center. Current shuttles are paid for almost entirely by the vending services on campus in addition to the fees collected by the parking office.

Although some students may start to think of this as a sort of “drunk bus” to the clubs and bars downtown, Benghanem said that alcohol education programs are being coordinated in conjunction with the Health Center to prevent students from taking advantage of the ride home and putting themselves in danger.

In addition to the new shuttles comes a new discount program for students to businesses in Troy. Working with Allison Newman, the head of Government and Community Relations, and Cynthia Smith, the assistant dean of FYE, Benghanem has worked to advertise the new discount program to local companies. At present, about 20 percent of the businesses in the city are signed up for the new program, but the group expects to increase that ratio to 90 percent. Some of the companies have already implemented the discount but are not advertising it, and the group has begun designing a sticker for shop windows to correct that.

Benghanem said the list of participating businesses is growing every day, and currently has approximately 250 names on it. She attributed much of the participation to communication between business owners. “This store owner talks to his neighbor about it, and they say ‘OK, I want to join now.’”