A lot of students walk to class, drive, ride bikes or roller blade, but starting today many will have to take a bus into the city.

For the next three years, as a result of the construction of the new Doudna Fine Arts Center, classes and offices have been relocated, forcing many students to rely on the Panther Express shuttle bus to make it to class.

While some classes remain on campus in Lawson Hall and McAfee Gymnasium, others are off campus at either the former Booth West location in the West Park Plaza on Lincoln Avenue or a former IGA on 18th Street.

All of the general education classes will remain on campus, but upper division art and theater courses will be moved to the temporary locations, Blair Lord, vice president for academic affairs, said. As a result, a new shuttle bus schedule was made to accommodate those affected students.

From 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. the shuttle will run to the temporary locations to transport the more than 250 students in upper-level fine arts classes. Shuttle ridership increased by 1,000 students in a year, said Ronnie Deedrick, student vice president for academic affairs.

The new schedule will not take more time on its routes. Instead, three stops were taken out of the previous schedule. For a student to get to class, Deedrick said, it takes seven minutes.

“The (stops) that had the most ridership stayed, I wouldn’t go and cut the (Student Recreation Center). That would be dumb,” Deedrick said.

The off-campus bus will no longer stop at Coleman Hall and McAfee Gymnasium. But the McAfee stop, Deedrick said, is no longer necessary because Booth Library no longer houses books there.

However, 11 fine arts classes in McAfee this year.

The on-campus bus will no longer stop at 7th Street

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and Polk Avenue.

“Essentially it’s the same amount of time,” Deedrick said. “I don’t think we hurt anyone.”

Bus schedules were mailed out to students in the relocated classes about a month ago, Deedrick said. On Monday, schedules will be handed out at both locations.

In addition, schedules listing where the classes have been moved to will be posted at the fine arts building, McAfee Gymnasium and Lawson Hall.

The temporary locations underwent renovations in the past month to prepare for the start of the year today.

“We’re good to go on Monday morning,” Jeffrey Lynch, associate dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, said Friday.

Shuttle Bus No. 1 stops at Carman Hall, Thomas Hall and the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. From 3 p.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday the bus will stop at Carman Hall, Greek Court, Buzzard Hall, the Union, Pemberton Hall, the former Booth West, Lantz Arena and Lawson Hall and from 3:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Shuttles begin at 7:30 a.m. and run continuously about every 20 minutes.

For Thursday through Saturday, the bus schedule will remain the same as last year with buses servicing the campus as well as the city.

Plans to transport students began less than two months ago when Deedrick was handed the task of revamping the shuttle schedule from Jeff Cross, associate vice president for academic affairs, Deedrick said. Revision could not begin until Deedrick received student numbers that would need to be transported by the bus.

The Doudna Fine Arts building is expected to be finished in the fall 2005.