UC To Facilitate Student Rides

An new program endorsed by the Undergraduate Council that aims to facilitate student ride-sharing opened around midnight this morning, less than a week after some UC representatives responded to student criticism with a call to dissolve the initiative.

The new service uses the Web interface at UCRides.org in conjunction with text messaging to help students arrange joint transport to and from common destinations such as Logan airport and New York City.

“The goal is to get people to the airport as quickly and cheaply as possible,” said Tom D. Hadfield ’08, who sponsored the original UC Rides legislation.

The first 200 people to be paired via the UC rides system will receive five-dollar gift certificates redeemable at the Harvard Square eatery b.good, Hadfield said.

The UC voted two weeks ago to allocate $1,000 to have the new service designed by a Seattle firm co-founded by former Campus Life Fellow Zachary A Corker ’04.

Last week, however, Mather House UC Representative Matthew R. Greenfield ’08 asked for the legislation to be retroactively amended, citing negative feedback from his constituents.

Greenfield said he received an e-mail from a former UC representative who was embarrassed over the UC’s “whimsical spending.”

Despite such criticism, Hadfield said he remained confident that the success of the program would quash initial concerns.

“I’m looking forward to boasting how many people are using the service after break,” he said, adding that the UC is criticized “every time [it] does something innovative.”

The UC will not be the only organization working to supply undergraduates with transportation in the days leading up to spring break.

Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) has also launched an initiative that will be offering students shuttle service to Logan tomorrow.

Hadfield, who participated in drafting the business plan for the HSA shuttle program, noted that Friday’s service will have the capacity to transport a total of only about 200 students to the airport.

“That’ll be good for some people,” he said. “But for the other 4,800 people trying to get to the airport, UC Rides will be the best way.”

—Staff writer Christian B. Flow can be reached at cflow@fas.harvard.edu.