Jackie Himelfarb arrived at the Mandela Room in the Old University Union for the ESCAPE Bus Thanksgiving ticket sale, only to see a line stretching to the Marketplace. With less than a week until Thanksgiving break, students are scrambling to find a way home.
“I can’t justify waiting on such a long line and wasting two hours that could be spent studying,” said Himelfarb, a freshman majoring in geography. “I’d rather just buy a Greyhound or College Express ticket online.”
As the number of Binghamton University students continues to increase, more are running into trouble getting home for the holidays.
With classes ending at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday and residence halls closing an hour later, students need to rush to get off campus. According to Terry Webb, the assistant vice president for student life, the University cuts the schedule so close because it needs to balance the demands of Residential Life and departments’ curriculum.
“With longer breaks it’s a little easier, and ones where the holiday isn’t pushed right up against the closings,” Webb said. “And when students leave, they often leave in a hurry. We have to check the buildings because if they leave something open, a pipe can break and flood the building. The process takes several hours to get through.”
Students have a number of options to get around New York state, including bus routes by ESCAPE, Short Line, Greyhound and College Express.
According to Alexandria Gasperini, the home trips director for ESCAPE and a junior majoring in bioengineering, the demand for ESCAPE tickets to New York City, Huntington and Fresh Meadows has skyrocketed this semester. She said that when ticket sales began on Nov. 5, the lines were longer than she had ever seen.
“The Tuesday before Thanksgiving break we usually only run one bus, but now we’re running two buses to three destinations each,” Gasperini said. “Wednesday we’re running another 10 buses, and on the returning trip we’ve added 13 additional buses, all from various locations.”
She explained that the buses are all going to the same destinations, but there are more times — late and early — to meet student demands.
The ESCAPE office also sells Short Line bus tickets to campus, now that ESCAPE bus tickets are sold out. According to Jonathan Donovan, the Short Line student representative and a senior majoring in electrical engineering, Short Line bus tickets can be more convenient for students because 14 buses are available each day.
“Short Line runs every day, so for the breaks if ESCAPE sells out you can just buy a Short Line ticket,” Donovan said. “We have a shuttle that runs from campus to the BC junction, where the Short Line buses leave, which is very convenient.”
Myles Quock, executive director of ESCAPE, said that even if students are taking Short Line, they need to get to the Downtown bus station early.
“We tell students to get there minimum of a half hour earlier than their scheduled departure times,” Quock said. “On busy days and vacation times, I highly recommend an hour earlier since it’ll be very packed and there will be many people trying to catch a bus.”
The BU Rideshare group on Facebook is also a way that students can connect with their peers to find rides back home from students with cars.
Jessica Schulman, a senior majoring in integrative neuroscience, says that having a car has made leaving for the holidays a much easier and less stressful process.
“I can just pack up and go whenever I want,” Schulman said. “If you wait too long bus tickets can be super expensive, especially during holidays, and sometimes you don’t know when you can leave until right before the break. The only negative part is the long drive home — I’m usually super tired.”
Dana Perez, a freshman majoring in biology, said that although it can be difficult to find a ride, the hassle is worthwhile.
“It’s definitely a struggle finding a way home as a freshman when you don’t have a car on campus,” Perez said. “But once I’m finally home and with my family for the holiday, it’s well worth it.”