The MSA STRIPES program, which provides MU students with free rides on late nights, skyrocketed in usage and popularity, leading to a $50,000 budget increase
On Oct. 1, the Missouri Students Association passed a bill raising the budget of the STRIPES safe ride program from $50,000 to $100,000 for the 2024-2025 school year.
The program offers University of Missouri students free rides between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and home football game days. Usage skyrocketed over the first two months of the semester, which sparked a conversation about a larger budget in MSA.
Over the past decade, STRIPES operated with a budget of $100,000 each year, which came from student fees. Last spring, MSA cut that to $50,000, due to low usage from the 2023-2024 school year.
According to MSA Vice President Emily Brockmann, the $50,000 was put into a contingency and reserve fund that other student organizations could apply for. That money was then put back into the STRIPES budget due to higher usage seen this fall.
Brockmann said STRIPES recorded 3,196 rides from mid-August to the end of September.
“Within the first three weeks, 20% of the student body activated their STRIPES account within Uber, which meant that at any point in time within hours of operations, they could call a safe ride,” Brockmann said.
At the beginning of the semester, students received two free rides per month, but in September, MSA began supplying students with $15 in Uber credit per month instead.
“We’re seeing students take more rides that cost less with their $15 because the prices have gone down,” Brockmann said. “So really, it makes it more flexible. You could take three cheap Ubers at good times, whereas before anyone could get a $60 Uber.”
Braden Bond, the STRIPES Director of Operations, said the new MSA administration wanted to prioritize student safety and raise STRIPES usage. They began doing this by increasing advertising.
MSA promoted the program at Welcome Week events, sent out emails to all students and spread the word to numerous campus organizations. Bond said they advertised to first-year students in particular to ensure that the program would last for years to come.
“Now you walk around campus and you ask a random person, ‘Have you heard of STRIPES?’” Bond said. “And they’re like, ‘Of course, I love STRIPES,’ which I think is what our main goal for this semester is because that was not present in the past.”
Edited by Eric Hughes | ehughes@themaneater.com
Copyedited by Avery Copeland and Natalie Kientzy | nkientzy@themaneater.com
Edited by Emily Skidmore | eskidmore@themaneater.com