Oregon State University - Beaver Yearbook (Corvallis, OR)

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 , Above left: City bus by day, Beaver Bus by night, it provides a safe ride to Corvallis residents. Volunteers assisted the bus drivers, answered questions and monitored passengers. | Photo by Anita Quiros Above: Beaver Bus driver Tiffany Hance laughs as Coral McWhorter sweeps the floor. McWhorter and her boyfriend met on the Beaver Bus. | Photo by Rachel Silver Far left: ASOSU Director of Saferide Patrick Stromer plants a kiss on senior Shantel Greiner while they ride the Beaver Bus. Community leaders created the Beaver Bus in an effort to increase community safety and lower crime rates. | Photo by Anita Quiros Middle: Orange-and-black signs like this one mark where the Beaver Bus stops are. Riders determined what route the Beaver Bus would take by how often people got on or off at a certain stop. | Photo by Anita Quiros Left: Three OSU students walk through campus after the bars close. The Beaver Bus made it possible for large groups to travel together, which Saferide wasn't designed to do. | Photo by Rachel Silver

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BEAVER BUS The 2006-2007 year marked the start of the new Beaver Bus, a shuttle program created through the work of ASOSU, the Corvallis Transit System (CTS), and local business owners. Students, staff and faculty rode the Beaver Bus with a valid OSU ID, while community members paid the regular CTS fare of 75 cents. In past years, when the CTS stopped running at 7 p.m., students had to rely on taxis, Saferide and friends to get them off-campus. The Beaver Bus had two routes: North, which was a modified version of the daytime route 1 and South, which combined the daytime routes 6 and 8. The predecessor of the Beaver Bus was called the Nightlife Shuttle, which was sponsored by the Downtown Corvallis Association and funded through private donations. The Nightlife Shuttle ended in 2000. However, in the fall of 2005, the ASOSU Community Affairs Task Force began working on what would become the Beaver Bus. Each of the three groups - the City of Corvallis, ASOSU, and local businesses - provided $21,000 to fund the Beaver Bus. At a cost of $1.20 per student, the student fees paid for operation costs related to the Beaver Bus. Some 200-300 OSU students used the Beaver Bus during an average weekend (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday). “We are here to provide safety for all, whether they are community members or OSU students and staff, ASOSU Executive Director of Services Heather James said. This service is a pioneering effort which bridges the gap between students and the citizens of Corvallis; this partnership is unprecedented and has thus far been a successful endeavor. | Story by Rachel Silver 26 Studert l,(o A student prepares to board the south route as it returns to the bus mall downtown. For about five minutes every hour, the drivers for the North and South routes met at the bus mall to update each other about bus-related issues. | Photo by Rachel Silver

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WINTER BREAK Winter Break is a period of intermission between school terms; in this case fall and winter terms. Where students and faculty get a chance to pick their heads up from out of the textbooks, put their writing utensils down, and focus on things enjoyable in their lives. Some Oregon State University students traveled out of the country for winter break, like sophomore Ashley Evans. Evans and her family went to London and Scotland for three weeks. One of the places she traveled to was Edinburgh, Scotland were she accentuated how freezing Scotland was, but how great it was to spend time with her family. Junior Heather Stafford worked over winter break, like many students trying to earn some extra money. She worked at Joann Fabrics Craft in Eugene and celebrated her birthday with family and friends. Other students traveled out of state to spend time with family such as junior Sean Mahoney and freshman Heather Mahoney who went to Hawaii to visit their grandmother and uncle. Sean said it was, family vacation in Hawaii, not necessarily a vacation-vacation. Many students enjoyed the extra time to go and participate in recreational activities, like junior Megan Hald. During the first week of winter break Megan stayed in Corvallis were she relaxed by sleeping in, taking her dogs on walks to the park, and watching movies and TV. The last weeks of winter break she went home to Ashland were she did some skiing at Mt. Ashland, spent time with family and met up with old friends to get together and catch up. Even members of the OSU Marching Band got out of Corvallis for winter break. They traveled to the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas to participate in one of the greatest comebacks in Beaver history, beating the Mizzou Tigers 39-38. | Story by Anita Quiros Megan Hald stops for a moment to embrace the beautiful view at Mt. Ashland. She was there spending time with her family and friends for some recreational fun. | Photo courtesy of Megan Hald 28 Shxicrf Itfo