In recent weeks, the Nicholls State University transit bus has experienced a few issues that have prevented students from being able to ride it.

Director of Nicholls Marketing and Communications, Jerad David said that last school year, after the Spin scooters were taken off of campus, the Student Government Association (SGA) president at the time, Austin Wendt, suggested a new transportation solution– a bus. 

Modeling the program after other universities’ transportation systems, SGA approached the administration with the concept and asked about using a bus that the university already owned that was no longer in use.

David said the bus had been used in previous years for the Little Colonels Academy and for programs with the elderly that Nicholls provided.

“It had been out of service for some time, but with a little bit of repair work, they were able to get it running again,” David said.

David said he believes the bus is nearly 20 years old, but once repairs were made, the administration allowed SGA to use the bus for the transportation program.

David said because of the bus’ age, it was somewhat expected to have a few issues. He explained that the Nicholls bus has been out of service four times since it was first launched.

Three of the times the bus was out of service, students received an email informing them that the bus would be unavailable that day.

The fourth time the bus had issues, the Nicholls athletics bus made the bus route instead. David said that Nicholls athletics made their bus available for use any time the Nicholls bus is down, unless the bus is out of town, being used by Nicholls athletics.

David said that there is preventative maintenance done to the bus on a regular basis to prevent malfunctions from happening.

“They have mechanics and members of the maintenance staff that tend to not only the bus but all the university’s cars and trucks,” David said. “They’ll do regular checkups on it, just to make sure that it’s safe to be used.”