SMU’s nighttime shuttle service, referred to by students as “Giddy-Up,” is a key component to the safety of the SMU campus. While I have used this complimentary service on numerous occasions, I will not hesitate to say that Giddy-Up has really disappointed me.
Giddy-Up is scheduled to begin at seven o’clock P.M. and shut down at three o’clock A.M. every day of the week. Yet last month when I called at 9:00, 9:15, and then at 9:30 P.M. only to receive five rings and a voicemail from Giddyy-Up’s supervisor, I began to grow very frustrated. There was no good reason for Giddy-Up to not answer their phone during peak business hours.
I decided that I would indeed walk alone across the dark and chilly campus to get to the Student Learning Center. I then saw two Giddy-Up drivers parked next to each other on a grassy patch of lawn just laughing with each other as they chatted. I thought to myself: “They’re getting paid for this?” What if I had been calling over and over again for that half hour because I was legitimately endangered?
The fact of the matter is that it wasn’t comforting to witness the one service that I have been told to depend on as a safety precaution leisurely lounge around. They acted as if they had nothing better to do. If this had happened on one occasion I would have thought nothing of it. But because I have experienced the same dilemma several times since the first incident, I’m beginning to think that our campus isn’t as safe as the students perceive it to be.
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