Southeast Missouri State University is continuing with its efforts to make sure students find a safe ride home. The Safe Ride program began in September and helps Southeast students get home after a night out in downtown Cape Girardeau. Since being created the program has undergone several changes that both the university and Student Government Association hope will not affect its popularity with students.

Feedback provided by a survey in late October revealed that after two full months students were very much in favor of the program and what it had to offer at this point for them. According to records provided by the Cape Girardeau County Transit Authority, there were 660 riders in September and 618 in October.

"I believe that if we continue to offer this program as a free or discounted service, it will continue to be heavily used," assistant dean of students Dr. Randy Carter said. "This program has increased awareness of the availability of affordable and reliable public transportation in our community."

As of right now the program is still completely free and will continue to be until the end of this semester for Southeast students, but beginning next semester students will be charged $3 per ride. The hope is this cost will not affect the program negatively.

Since the survey was conducted, both SGA and the university have put a lot of thought into some needed changes for the program. One of those changes includes the areas that CTA will pick up Southeast students. Students who are in need of a ride at a house during the operational hours can get picked up and taken to their homes starting next semester. This issue arose due to the fact that CTA had previously only picked up students from the downtown Cape Girardeau area.

"We want to make a program that is sustainable from year to year, something that students can depend on, and we don't know if long term it can fit into student government's budget to be funding free rides because it does cost a lot," president of SGA Benny Dorris said. "We're going to see how that small charge affects the numbers."

Cost is always an issue and since the beginning of this pilot program the dean of students' office was paying for the program, but as of now the Safe Ride program is completely funded through SGA. According to Dorris, SGA has allocated $15,000 a year for this program, but it is not expected that it will all be used, especially with the additional charge of $3 per ride. It is estimated that nearly 60 percent of the cost will be cut due to the charge per ride from students.

"It's hard because this is the first time we've ever tried this program, so everything we try is new so we have to see what the numbers do before we make anymore decisions," Dorris said. "We might talk about eventually funding this long term, but only time will tell and it may not even be a decision that the current student government representatives make -- it could be something that happens next year."

Operational hours for the service are 8 p.m. - 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. Students in need of a ride home should contact CTA at 573-335-5533.