Last week I moved to Etimesgut, thinking that there was bus service to and from Bilkent. Actually, there is, but only at 5:40 p.m. in the evening, which is too late (3:40 p.m. or 4:40 p.m. would be better) for any Bilkenters like me. In addition, the bus first passes through Batıkent, Eryaman, Fatih, Sincan, and Elvankent before it gets to Etimesgut. Last week this was not so. Etimesgut was the first stop on the route.
When I asked the driver the reason for the change, he replied that the signatures of 50 Batİkent residents had been submitted requesting a stop there. Yet on February 16, only one person got off at Batıkent. If there really are 50 Bilkenters living in Batıkent, why not arrange a separate bus service for them? On the day mentioned, I got on the bus at 5:40 p.m. and got off at 6:43 p.m. without the bus passing Sincan, Elvankent, and Fatih, since nobody but me was left on the bus.
Furthermore, I can't take the morning bus because it follows a different route from that in the evening. I cannot understand the logic of this. I have tried contacting the transportation unit for permission to use the staff service bus, but I was told that it is not allowed. However, I happen to know that staff were using the student bus in Ümitköy, where I moved from, as well as those from Koru Sitesi and Konutkent, even though staff service buses are also available for them there. Every morning I see the Etimesgut staff service bus pass by my home with empty seats. Why should a Bilkenter be made to suffer needlessly in this cold and snowy weather when there is such a simple solution at hand?
Osman Çöllü (SAL/II)
M. Sinan Çam, Transportation Services Manager, provided the following response to Osman Çöllü's letter:
The route of the evening service bus to Batıkent, Eryaman, Fatih, Sincan, and Etimesgut differs from the routes taken by the morning service buses because there are two buses in the morning and only one in the evening. Students are not allowed to use the personnel buses, while personnel are not allowed to use the student buses.
In the December 27, 1999 issue of Bilkent News, Dr. Seyit Koçberber wrote an explanation regarding the telephone bills posted on the web. To follow up, I would like to find out the answers to the following questions:
1) The telephone calls students make in the dormitories are supposed to be simultaneously displayed on the web, but sometimes this system does not work. For example, some students were not able to see their phone bills on the web page between January 12 and February 7. I was told that this was due to a technical problem. Since the system was not working properly, I was not aware of the charges I had accumulated (37 million TL, which, unfortunately, I have not yet been able to pay). When there is such a technical problem, would it be possible for BCC to assign a student (volunteer) or a staff member to inform the others?
2) It would be good if the extra money students deposit to the system did not lose any value against inflation, by indexing it to the US dollar. Similarly, I understand that my telephone bill is periodically recalculated in US dollars if I have unpaid charges. Is that true?
The thing that really bothers me is that nobody informs us when there is a technical problem with the system. Note that we are all students with limited budgets. I trust that BCC will take positive steps to solve this problem.
Nergis Yalçınkaya (ECON/III)
