Towers residents may become more familiar with the sidewalks along Welch Avenue this year if the Government of the Student Body does not approve a bill to preserve the current schedule for CyRide’s Brown Route.

Due to Department of Residence budget cuts, the busses running on the Brown Route may make only half of last year’s trips, putting it on a 40-minute cycle.

Because the Towers are significantly farther from campus than the dorms in the Richardson Court Association and Union Drive Assiciation, the route is provided as a free service to Towers residents to transport them to and from campus.

Although the residence department already has decided to cut back the service, CyRide can maintain the current 20-minute schedule by dipping into its contingency fund to make up the difference.

The contingency fund is unbudgeted money, but because it is made up of student fees, GSB must first approve its spending.

The bill will be introduced to the senate at the GSB meeting tonight at 7 in the Gallery of the Memorial Union, and the senate will vote on it Sept. 1.

If the senators care about the students they represent and about the money they control, they will do the right thing and approve the bill.

Even though the Brown Route serves only students who live in Towers, our student fee money is better spent providing a greatly appreciated service to some than providing nothing to anyone by forcing CyRide to save it for a rainy day.

Every year, some student fees go into the contingency fund. Sometimes there’s a deficit; last year there happened to be a surplus. Bob Bourne, the director of CyRide, said the money in the contigency fund is meant to be used for exactly this purpose.

As long as the money is available, why not help out the students stuck out in ISU’s most distant dorms?

Residents of university housing such as Schiletter Villageand University Village also live a greater distance from campus than their RCA and UDA counterparts, but most of those students are older, have cars and can drive to the commuter lot to catch the Orange Route if they don’t feel like footing it to class.

Maybe Towers residents don’t deserve to have a free ride to central campus any more than other ISU students. But as long as the money is there, why not use it for students?