As Jalal Williams boarded the shuttle bus this morning en route to the Art Center housed at the former IGA, he started making plans to take a second trip on the Panther Express after class.

“I’m going to take the bus tonight to Wal-Mart to buy a bike,” the freshman graphic design major said. “At least then I know I’ll be on time.”

Williams is one of many Eastern students taking the Panther Express to and from art class at the former IGA building on 18th Street and the former Booth West location. Classes were moved off campus this fall after the Dounda Fine Arts building closed for construction, which is expected to be completed by fall 2003.

Many students are finding that getting to class on time is easier said than done.

“I don’t want to do this everyday,” said Nate Kaltter, a sophomore business major taking a beginning art course. “I’m just going to drop my class.”

Many students expressed concern over how often the bus ran, saying they don’t like having to choose between being half an hour early for class or walking in seven minutes late.

“I don’t think they have courses coordinated with how classes start and end,” said Dean Johns, a Panther Express driver.

Annie Holste, a junior graphic design major, said constructing a class schedule around the Panther Express is also difficult because she cannot have classes 45 minutes before and after a class in either of the buildings.

As well as scheduling difficulty and inconvenience, students may also have trouble getting to class on time.

The other Panther Express bus, which transports students from Carmen to the Union, is often overcrowded.

Johns said he sometimes has to leave students waiting for the next bus if they won’t fit. If those students are then taking the other bus from the Union to art classes, they might not arrive on time.

Johns also said he has been waiting a few extra minutes at the IGA and the former Booth West location to make sure no students are left behind.

“Yesterday a class got out just in time to see the bus turn the corner,” he said.

Tuesday, only one person was picked up from the Square during the morning, however the bus still spends minutes at the empty stop. Last year, the Panther Express stopped in the the Square once every hour.

Now the bus stops their once every half hour, though students are hardly every at the stop, Johns said.

“The problem is although you’re pretty sure there won’t be anyone out there, you have to stop because there just may be someone waiting for you,” Johns said. “It would be great if there was a way to utilize the time better instead of running to the square every half hour, but you’d have to change the whole schedule for that.”

Despite the initial bumps in the road for Panther Express, Ronnie Deedrick, chair of the shuttle bus committee, said very few changes are planned.

“It was my impression that things will be rough the first week of school, but I don’t see any reason why we would change it. The first two weeks are being used as a test period,” Deedrick said.

Though riding the bus is out of the way for students, the main concern for many is punctuality.

“It’s embarrassing to ride the bus, but as long as it gets me here on time, I don’t care,” said Dana Lanasa, a junior graphic design major. “Today it was convenient because it was here on time.”

Melissa Tieri, a freshman theater major, said people in classes are helpful in getting back to campus.

“If our classes end early people are really nice about driving us back,” Tieri said. “It’s more a matter of getting used to it.”