ETK exec member Shelley Hartman is worried that the new rule will affect the way their organization operates. Photo by Heidi Nyhus
AL STRAIN STAFF WRITER
Wartburg is implementing a new rule that would require all drivers of campus vehicles to be at least 21 years old.
The policy change is a result of a new partnership between Wartburg and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which requires all drivers of their vehicles to be at least 21.
“Last year we started working with Enterprise to help supply a lot of our travel, with the exception of vans they supply the largest portion of the cars for travel that the college has,” said Gary Grace, vice president of administration.
One reason Wartburg is working with Enterprise is to limit the cost of maintaining cars the college owns.
By implementing a partnership with Enterprise, Wartburg had to adjust their insurance, which was renewed over the summer.
“It became an issue for our insurance carrier. Why would we allow some people to drive when they’re 18, but in another environment they had to be 21? They had a liability concern,” said Grace.
The new rule would create many problems with campus volunteer activities, such as Habitat for Humanity and various service trips.
Amy Tucker is the student coordinator for service trips and she said the rule change will affect service trips.
“I was confused on why its happening, but I understand now. It’s nice that we know about it early,” Tucker said.
She said one of the biggest problems is that upperclassmen don’t volunteer for service trips as often.
“We will be recruiting upper classmen a lot more this year,” Tucker said.
She said over 200 students participated in service trips last year, and similar numbers are expected for this year.
Grace said Wartburg is working with their insurance company to try and extend the deadline to the end of the current academic year.
Wartburg is looking at several solutions to help circumvent these problems Grace said, especially in the area of service trips and student employment.
“We might have to get more volunteer adults to go out on service trips, some people may have to be careful about which students they hire in terms of being able to drive for particular jobs on campus,” said Grace.
Grace also said the college is looking into an exception for in-town driving.
This would allow students over the age of 18 to still be able to drive campus vehicles in the Waverly city limits.
Tucker said the exemption for in-town driving would be helpful to the Volunteer Activity Center for student organizations that do volunteer work in Waverly.
“You can fit 11 people in a van and a lot of the time that’s a good number,” said Tucker.
The policy change is set to happen on January 1, 2010.