Oxy Admin: Friend or Foe?

          After doing some hardcore navigating of the Zipcar website, stalking other small colleges’ sustainability pages for any mention of car sharing, and (finally) talking to the National University Director for Zipcar, I was pumped.

Why so excited?  Perhaps I was a little delusional, but after all my research, I thought there was really no way Oxy couldn’t implement Zipcar – or a similar program – on campus.  Oxy’s urban, car-centric campus makes a car-sharing program a nearly inevitable student service.  Plus, over 130 colleges in the United States – including dozens of small liberal arts colleges – have had great success starting up a Zipcar program on campus.  Zipcar even does all the work – Oxy’s only obligation would be $1500/car/month revenue guarantees, which could hopefully be covered by financial support from the Sustainability Fund or other sources on campus.  Once these guarantees are met (which often happens after just a few months), Zipcar lifts them – permanently. It seemed like a win-win the Oxy admins should have no problem with: the students would be happier, parking would become less of an issue, and the program may even attract some prospective students.   And so, all giddy from talk of Priuses and online reservation systems, I went – with a student ASOC senator – to start casually talking to the Oxy administration. 

Needless to say, the meeting didn’t go exactly as I’d planned.  In fact, it was downright disheartening.

Clearly, I was a bit delusional to think that such a car-sharing program would be ‘inevitable.’  Unfortunately, Oxy admins – even those who are all for sustainable programs such as Zipcar – aren’t allowed to support these ideas as much as they would otherwise, because of Oxy’s strict policy-making criteria, otherwise known as Always-make-policies-based-upon-the-hypothetical-worst-case-scenario. Technicalities and policy details make implementing any program at Oxy a time-consuming and frustrating process.

Although there were quite a few potential issues listed by administrators regarding the Zipcar program, a primary concern was insurance.  Why?  One reason was that even though Zipcar provides insurance for all drivers in the program, a student – or someone hit by a student – may sue them if Zipcar insurance doesn’t cover the total accident costs. 

Practical?  Perhaps.  Irrational? I think so.  I agree that any school –especially a small school – should be cautious when adopting a new, potentially risky, program.  However, programs such as Zipcar and bike-sharing present the opportunity for far more benefits to students than potential costs.  Even better, these benefits have already been tested and proven by over one hundred other colleges and universities nationwide.  According to economics, and most students, that means that adopting these programs should be a no-brainer. 

Hopefully, by my next blog post, I’ll have some great news to share regarding Zipcar.  A fellow student (an ASOC senator) and I will be meeting with Rebecca Dowling (the woman in charge of insurance and waivers) and Tim Chang (the new ResLife director) on Friday to go over some Zipcar details.  If anyone would like to meet with Annie and I on Friday the 16^th before our meeting to give some suggestions or talk about Zipcar, please do so!  We’ll be outside the ASOC office from about 11:45-12:45.   

Lastly…a few Zipcar photos to get everyone excited!