On Nov. 1, Milligan’s Student Government Association started the “Rides Up Sutton Hill” van service. Every Friday from 12:15 to 1 PM, Milligan vans will give students free rides up and down Sutton Hill to and from class and lunch. The vans will start in front of the business building parking lot and ride continuously up and down Sutton Hill transporting students.
This project was spearheaded by Student Body President Ashley Roberts. She aimed to bring something from the past that also helps students simultaneously.
“We had heard that SGA of years past had done van rides to lunch,” she said. We do a lot of events, so we love to seize any initiatives that are outside of the box and solve a student’s need or want in a fun way.”
Roberts was able to get this off the ground with the assistance of Gabe Rosenbalm, a sophomore SGA male representative. They both worked with Gabriel Logan, their SGA staff advisor, to contact the Milligan Physical Plant, to get clearance to use the vans. Logan also received approval to allow SGA members to drive the vans.
Two Milligan vans will be transporting students up and down the hill continuously over a 45-minute window. Logan, Roberts, Rosenbalm, and the rest of SGA see it as a low-effort, potential high-reward situation. This is a small start, but SGA hopes to continue and grow this trend to add to the amenities to make students’ lives easier.
“Since this is a newer thing, we are looking to see how people take to it,” Rosenbalm said. “We don’t want to give too much thought to future expansions until we see how the student body is responding to it. However, if everyone likes it we would be more than happy to find a way to extend the service to other days or times.
Students have already started to take advantage of the van rides since the initiative’s inception, though no exact numbers have been reported yet.
“We love what we’ve seen so far,” said Rosenbalm. “For the rest of the year and hopefully for years to come SGA will continue to provide van rides.”
All SGA news and updates will be on their Instagram page @milligansga.
written by Evan Hayes