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Syracuse University’s Student Association passed a bill Monday to continue transporting students to major grocery stores during the spring 2022 semester.

The bill allocates $5,391.90 for the trolleys to transport students. The grocery runs will occur six times during the semester, twice each to Walmart, Target and Wegmans.

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Yasmin Nayrouz, SA’s vice president of university affairs, presented the bill to the assembly at Monday’s meeting. The “Grocery Run!” occurred in the fall 2021 semester, but the current bill was updated to change the cost, add Walmart to the schedule and increase the number of trips planned.

The initiative was popular in the fall semester as many students don’t have their own transportation and there is no major grocery store within walking distance from SU campus, Nayrouz said.

Twice a month, a trolley will run in a loop from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to drop off and pick up students from the allocated grocery store.

The estimated cost of the scheduled trolley grocery runs is $868.65 for each scheduled day, Keith Phillips, transportation manager of SU’s Parking and Transportation Services, told Nayrouz in an email. Last semester, the cost was about $700 per day.

David Bruen, president of SA, said more than 110 student leaders across higher education institutions, including himself, signed a letter this week calling on President Joe Biden to cancel the student loan debt. Bruen said that he hopes to continue working with student leaders and nonprofit organizations on student loan debt cancellation in the coming months.

“I mentioned this last semester. It was a work in progress then, but over the break we made a lot of progress,” Bruen said about the letter. “There’s going to be more work on this — it’s obviously not done yet.”

Other business

Martin Luther King III will speak at SU’s virtual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration on Sunday, the university announced on Jan. 17.

Bruen announced his membership to the National College Consortium advisory board.

SA meetings will remain mainly in person, with a virtual option on Zoom due to the pandemic.

DISCLAIMER: Yasmin Nayrouz was a staff writer for The Daily Orange. Since taking a position in the Student Association, she has not contributed to The D.O., and thus does not influence the editorial content of The D.O.

Published on January 24, 2022 at 11:49 pm

Contact Kailey: kmnorusi@syr.edu