The airport shuttle and the InBody Scan machine will now be cheaper for students to use, following Wednesday’s Student Government meeting. 

In the past, students had to pay $50 each way to get to the airport in Des Moines, causing some out-of-state students and international students to opt for a cheaper and less safe option, such as Uber. 

Director of Transportation Services Jeremy Paul and his team noticed a problem many years ago when it came to out-of-state and international students trying to get to campus from the Des Moines Airport. 

“Behold, we got permission to shuttle students back and forth between the airport. So we set up the service,” Paul said. “We set it up, and I think the first rides we gave were Thanksgiving break of 2023, so not quite two years ago, and there was a few participants because we didn’t get a chance to advertise it, but since then, it’s grown tremendously. We’ve driven hundreds of your peers back and forth to the airport.”

With the passage of the bill through a unanimous vote, the senate allocated $32,500 to the shuttle program, which subsidizes 650 rides to and from the airport from Thanksgiving to the winter break and cuts a single trip in half to $25. 

“We offer two different shuttles for students,” Paul said. “One is a black car service. You get your own car, and you get driven to the airport, and that’s $125. And then we have group shuttles that we format around holidays, breaks, beginning of the semesters, that are $50 a piece. And, you know, we just drive to the airport and drop you off, right? So, you know, it’s not cheap.”

While senators were overall supportive of the bill, Sen. Muhammad Azhan, a graduate student in chemistry, and Sen. Jake Snyder, a senior majoring in public relations, were interested in how the shuttle service can better serve students. 

Azhan questioned the number of students the shuttle serves, how many vehicles are available for the service and booking slots for group rides to the airport. 

Paul noted that there are 750 vehicles available to shuttle services. “We have never not had enough capability to meet the demand,” Paul said, even with only 12 part-time drivers. 

“Historically, what we’ve done, and again, I have two years of pattern analysis on this, right?” Paul said. “So around the high demand periods, for instance, before Thanksgiving break, we will run, usually four to five shuttles per day for three days leading up to and then returning from the trips. You know you’re looking at 9-12 shuttles. And what we’ll normally do is we will open slots up in anticipation and when students want to travel. And then, if nobody hits them, we’ll close them down before the time starts.”

Snyder asked how accessible the shuttle is for students living on campus and in apartments, with the Transportation Services building being located far from central campus. Paul said he is aware of the issue and is currently looking into additional pick-up locations, there is no set plan to remedy the issue. 

The bill also included a $9,000 line item to insure university vehicles for the use of student organizations. The bill states that the number comes from having to charge $10 per student organization, per day, with around 900 driving days from over 100 student organizations. 

 “One of the things about student organization travel, specifically 18-year-old kids driving a $60,000 suburban down the road, is that it elevates risk, right?” Paul said. “There’s a reason why an Enterprise won’t rent an 18-year-old a car, because the risk is high, right? So in order to offset that risk, we carry an extremely expensive additional insurance plan outside of our normal insurance plan for these vehicles.”

The insurance to cover these vehicles costs around $110,000 a year, a high expense that Transportation Services has to pay, and does not want to pass down to student organizations. 

The Department of Transportation purchased new buses for student organization use, and anticipates partnering with the Student Government PR committee to run a naming contest for the new vehicles — the winner receives a free group shuttle pass for a year. 

After editing the language of the bill for corrections, the Senate also approved, in a roll call vote of 20-0-1, funding for the InBody Scan machine in a partnership with Rec Services. 

“So the InBody is a body composition machine where it uses an electric signal to go through your body and it breaks down your body mass index,” Cliff McIntosh, the associate director of programs and recreation services, said. “So what’s your bone mass, what’s your muscle mass, what’s your fat mass, how much water do you have in your system? It also bases it off of a compartmental system, so it looks at your right arm versus your left arm.”

McIntosh was interested in partnering with the Student Government to request $1,000 to help pay for staff training and shifts and keep up the subscription for the machine.

While the machine used to be $15 for students to use, it is currently free, and the funding from the Student Government will keep it that way. The funding will also help save for a replacement machine in the years to come, with a new InBody priced around $15,000, according to McIntosh. 

Last year, 200-250 students used the InBody, and now that the machine is free, in the past three weeks, almost 80 students have used the machine to assist with their workout and training goals. 

Sen. Adelaide Brennan, a sophomore in performing arts, questioned the negative impacts of the bill, wondering if the machine could harm students who have body image issues. 

“We talked with the dieticians on campus as well as our Wellness Department, and we came out with a plan, and it’s a subtle scan of all entrances into that program,” McIntosh said. “If we see somebody that’s doing a scan more than once a month, maybe two times a month, and we start to watch a little bit more carefully, because we don’t want somebody going in there week after week.” 

Students are also able to have consultations after their scan and speak with trainers who are certified in reading the machine and talk about how to proceed after using the InBody. 

The Senate additionally approved unanimously a $4,016.25 bill to fund the Jack Trice Remembrance Day Event during the meeting. The event will take place Oct. 8 and is open to all students. 

The following bills were passed in a roll call vote with no objections.

• Funding $200 to Letters of Love.
• Funding $950 for Student Government polos and nametags.
• Funding $3,060 for food for Puerto Rican Night.

The following bills were passed with unanimous consent. 

• Luv Saini, a sophomore majoring in management, was sat as the Ivy College of Business Senator and as an at-large member on the finance committee.
• Nick Michael, a junior in landscape architecture, was sat as an at-large member on the sustainability committee. 
• Olivia Miller, a senior in environmental science, was sat as an at-large member on the sustainability committee.
• Halle Cuddeback, a sophomore in event management, was sat as an at-large on the events committee.
• Allison Werries, a freshman majoring in event management, and Gavin Yost, a freshman majoring in event management, were sat on the events committee.
• Clair Lewis, a senior majoring in political science, and Rahul Bhat, a senior majoring in civil engineering, were sat as at-large members on the local affairs committee.
• Mkpe Kekung, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, and Paige Bailey, a junior majoring in political science, were sat on the health and wellness committee.
• Srishti Nandal, a junior majoring in data science, was sat on the rules committee.
• Maddie Reinhardt, a junior majoring in animal science, was sat as on the finance committee.
• Bryan Rios, a freshman majoring in civil engineering, and Jenna Weiland, a junior in accounting and finance, were sat as at-large members on the finance committee.

The following bills were read for the first time and will be voted on in future meetings. 

• Funding the Satellite Research Group.
• Geo-Institute Student Chapter.
• Travel funding for American Institute of Steel Construction.
• Skydiving Debt Contract.

The next Student Government meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Memorial Union.