By Nate Powell-Palm
powellpa@grinnell.edu
No matter how much we’d like to believe it, Grinnell will never be a socialist utopia. In many social science introduction classes, such as Economics and Political Science, students learn about the phenomenon known as the ‘tragedy of the commons.’ This societal flaw has come to roost in the form of the Campus Bikes program. A student-run and SGA-supported program, Campus Bikes has recently become the target of several Joint Board senators who are on the warpath to cut the program.
At last Wednesday’s Joint Board, Senators Sam Mulopulos ’14, Tom Van Heeke ’12, Dylan Gray ’14 and Max Farrell ’12 presented a resolution that would abolish the program. They collectively cited the fact that they feel this is a prime opportunity to send a message to Grinnellians that their privilege could be reneged, should they choose not to act responsibly towards the bikes.
“I commend them for taking some action,” said SGA’s Vice President for Academic Affairs, Wadzi Motsi ’12. “We mentioned this at the beginning of the semester, and no one was doing anything.”
She agreed that the resolution is an opportunity to send a message to the greater campus body that people need to reconsider how they treat the bikes.
“It’s not about the money,” Motsi said. “We take a lot on this campus for granted. This symbolizes self governance and how it’s failing.”
SGA Treasurer Kathy Andersen ’13 said she thought the resolution, as written, was not the right answer to the bikes problem.
“The resolution [at Joint Board] was not the right thing that we needed,” Andersen said. “It was too vague. It said to abolish the program, which doesn’t work to fix it.”
Upon the presentation of the resolution, several different voices around campus have made themselves heard on the issues surrounding the Campus Bikes Program.
“The Campus Bikes Program is a fantastic part of this campus,” said SGA President Gabe Schechter ’12. “[It provides] the ability to have this shared responsibility where we can all benefit by handing off our property to each other.”
Schechter continued that he thinks not only is the bike system an opportunity for students to engage in self-gov, but that the issues surrounding the debate have been blown out of proportion.
“There has been a lot of talk of people throwing a bike off the loggia,” Schechter said. “This probably happened no more than twice. It’s really an exaggerated example to keep using.”
Colin Brooks ’13, one of the program’s two coordinators, sees a tragic aspect to the current state of the program.
“I’m not totally sure that it’s worth keeping around. While I love that it’s out there and people can use [the bikes], they get broken so fast,” Brooks said. “As one of the two mechanics on it, it’s pretty discouraging.”
Abolishing the campus bikes programs has triggered enough debate that the original authors of the resolution reconsidered their position in anticipation of the Joint Board vote Wednesday, Nov. 30.
“I sponsored and wrote a resolution calling for the abolition of the Campus Bikes Program. Now, I don’t know if we should necessarily abolish the program,” said Sam Mulopulos, ’14, one of the Senators sponsoring the resolution.
However, Mulopulos solidly asserted that action must be taken to address the problems surrounding the bikes.
“I think we need to see a greater campus discussion. The system is broken,” Mulopulos said.
The resolution came forth for an official vote in this week’s Joint Board. However, in anticipation of the fact that many people did not agree with the notion of simply abolishing the program, the original sponsors of the bill offered an amendment withdrawing the call to abolish the program and instead proposing to withhold the program’s funding. The amendment was rejected and was instead classified as a separate resolution.
This resolution never came to fruition, due to Schechter presenting an alternative solution at the last minute. Those interested in the issue of Campus Bikes will form a committee to gather a large enough body of information to better advise Joint Board senators about the issue. The committee is scheduled to meet this Sunday, Dec. 4. E-mail [sgamoney] if you want to join the committee.