CyRide’s Brown Route will continue to run its regular schedule, thanks to the Government of the Student Body senate.

GSB approved a bill Wednesday night that will allow money from CyRide’s contingency fund to finance Brown Route for a year.

The bus route, which transports students living in the Towers Residence Association to and from campus free of charge, was in danger of having its schedule reduced due to budget cuts in the Department of Residence.

The bill was passed 24-3-1 with little debate. It will allocate $15,000 to the Brown Route from the contingency fund, which is made up of student fee money.

“I’m surprised that it passed so easily and by such a majority,” said Jonathon Weaver, TRA, who co-authored the bill with Lee Kaiser, engineering. “I was also very pleased with the large turnout of not only Towers residents but student leaders that came to speak their minds.”

The gallery of the Campanile Room of the Memorial Union, seating about 50, was filled by proponents of the Brown Route bill.

“It may not be the best allocation of funding to the students as a whole, but it is for my constituents,” said Joe Foster, TRA president.

Foster stressed that CyRide should never again need money from the contingency fund to support the Brown Route.

“This is a one-time thing — I can guarantee that,” he said.

Supporters included not only Towers residents and student leaders. Union Drive Association President Erin Link also was present to speak out in support of the bill.

“Even though the Brown Route does not directly affect the UDA residents, we’re here to support this bill because sooner or later we know something like this will happen to us, and we’ll need Towers’ support,” she said.

Bob Bourne, director of CyRide, also was in attendance, and he fielded questions from senators regarding the funding and the route.

Christian Edmiston, graduate, who ultimately voted against the bill, questioned whether the route should be funded by any organization but the residence department.

“The original agreement was the Department of Residence was going to fund it,” Edmiston said. “This bill seems to go against the intent.”

Bourne said the residence department and CyRide never signed a contract providing for the Brown Route, and the money from the contingency fund would be a short-term, one-time solution to maintain the route while the department decides on long-term plans.

“You can’t talk these options through in a short time period,” Bourne said. “We just want to get them through the year.”

CyRide’s contingency fund, which is intended for emergency use, currently holds about $56,000, and any unused amount of the $15,000 will be returned to the fund, Weaver said.

“What this fund does is take care of these problems on short notice,” Bourne said.

* In other business, the senate passed with unanimous consent a bill seating Archana Chandrupatla, senior in journalism and mass communication, as an international senator. The senate also approved a bill seating the 1999-2000 finance committee.