It's 2 a.m., and you stumble out of a fraternity house, trying to figure out how you're getting back to the dorm. A security shuttle pulls up at the curb, and in an effort not to miss this golden opportunity to make it back to the box of Pop-Tarts in your room, you run to the van, arms waving in the air like a panicked tenant running from a burning building.
Luckily, the Auburn University Department of Public Safety operates what is officially called the Night Security Shuttle Van Service from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. to give you a ride back to your beloved pastries.
With one phone call to 334-844-7400, students can summon the security shuttle, a free taxi service for students anywhere on campus.
Shuttle driver and retired police captain Wilbur Brown knows your story better than you think. He drives Auburn students to and from, whether they're sober or drunk, headed to the library or a bar.
While he drives, Brown records how many students get on the shuttle, where and when they get on, and how long it takes to get to their destinations. This information is used to efficiently accomplish the shuttle service's goal: safely getting students where they need to go.
"I feel like I'm helping the kids not get hurt--that's the whole point of the security shuttle," Brown said.
The benefits of the shuttle can be seen in the state of its riders.
Exhibit A: Chad Crosson, junior in business administration, said he sometimes tries to get hit by the Tiger Transit because he heard that's how you can get free tuition.
"If I don't die, I'll break a leg," Crosson said. "It's totally worth it--that's like $100,000."
During a ride on the shuttle, he also took a poll on whether the rest of the people in the shuttle thought Taylor Swift was hot.
While this is the image most people get when they think of the security shuttle, students also use it to get to the library or a late-night study party.
Students riding the shuttle Friday night had no lack of gratitude for the drivers or the system.
"Not only is it a free taxi, but if I rely on them, they get me where I need to be late at night, so I don't have to drive," said David Butts, freshman in pre-mechanical engineering.
In reality, it is a highly monitored, efficiently designed system created to move hundreds of students around campus after-hours.
"I think it's mostly serving its purpose," Brown said. "It's being a little bit misused, I guess, when they're going off and getting so inebriated, but at the same time, if they're not getting arrested and they're not getting into wrecks, then I guess it's OK."
This is what led to students' nickname for the security shuttle: the "drunk bus."
"I don't care for it, but I can't stop it," Brown said. "Everybody calls it the drunk bus."
Driving the shuttle gives Brown a chance to see Auburn students in a different light than most of the professors and faculty--an inside look at what students are up to all night.
Still, Brown is optimistic about the students.
"They're just trying to find their legs and see who they are," Brown said. "Everybody has good days and bad days."
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