Students worried about managing the walk to Hillside Community and taking city buses to the University Downtown Center can breathe a sigh of relief — the Off Campus College Transport blue buses aren’t going anywhere.

“An agreement has been reached by Binghamton University and the Student Association that will allow Off Campus College Transport to continue to operate without any disruption in service,” read an announcement released last Friday by Matt Landau, president of the Student Association, and Brian Rose, vice president for Student Affairs.

This situation stems from a 24-year old tax error that made it impossible for the University to legally contract with OCCT, which led to financial difficulties for the service. Landau had previously considered shutting down OCCT buses completely by Oct. 10 if the problem wasn’t resolved.

According to the statement, University administrators and the SA have been working to find a solution to the financial problems over the last few weeks.

“Basically it was on Friday afternoon, and myself, Alice Liou [vice president of finance for the SA], JoAnn Navarro [associate vice president for Administrative Services] and Peter Napolitano [director of Auxiliary Services] reached a signed agreement that will keep the buses running,” Landau told Pipe Dream on Sunday.

Though he couldn’t go into specifics about the agreement, Landau said it’s safe to assume that it was financially related.

“I think both sides are very happy with how it all worked out,” he said.

Rose told Pipe Dream yesterday that the University remains absolutely committed to providing effective bus service to both students and the Binghamton community.

“We’re obviously delighted that we’ve been able to reach an agreement that buys enough time for the SA to resolve the underlying tax issues of OCCT,” he said.

Once the tax issues are resolved, “we can move forward into a long term understanding,” he added.

According to Rose, the University has agreed to cover a significant amount of repair expenses for the buses. It has also decided not to seek reimbursement for fuel costs owed by OCCT right away.

“What was important was to make sure there’s enough operating revenue for the buses to continue to run,” he said.

Elaine Liu, OCCT’s service manager, was happy an agreement had been made.

“I’m definitely very pleased that there won’t be any chance of a service shutdown,” she said.

Liu said that she was looking forward to resolving the hiring freeze at the first board meeting of the semester, but that she foresaw no changes beyond that.

“In terms of service, I think everything should stay the same,” she said. “So far we haven’t had any complaints about the service so hopefully it’s enough for what the students need.”

Student reaction to the decision has been extremely positive.

“I’m definitely happy the buses are staying, they affect a lot of people,” said Heather Hili, an English major. “We pay a $47 transportation fee and half the students don’t even use the buses, so to take away from those that do would have been stupid.”

Katie DiGioia, an Arabic studies major, had a similar opinion.

“It’s definitely a well-needed system that needed to be kept in place no matter what,” she said.