DeKALB — Student Assocation Senator Tristan Martin, who serves on the Mass Transit committee, has been working with university officials on a new bike sharing system.

The Borrow-a-Bike program is the system that’s currently in place and is available through parking services. The alternative transportation option is available to students, faculty and staff and allows them to use it for the semester.

The current system runs on a first-come, first-serve basis and requires users to complete a safety course quiz before use, according to the parking services webpage.

Campus services director, Laura Lundelius said, in a phone call with the Northern Star, the bike share program will not be implemented until university officials and the city of DeKalb have a meeting to work out the details.

“These bikes are going to be free; so what you’ll do is you’ll download the app, go through all the instructions of how to use the bike, and you’ll be able to use it free for a month,” Martin said.

Martin said the old bikes could be donated or discarded because the new system, which he said is similar to bike share options in Chicago, will be much more technological than the current one.

 “…Some upper administration of NIU is a little persistent in moving forward with the city of DeKalb on this at the same time,” Martin said. “So parking services took this on because they were offering this to us for free, and we wanted to get the students’ perspective and try it out first.”

Lundelius said if the university moves forward with the city and VeoRide, the selected bike share service, then there would probably be 50 bikes in the trial period on campus.

Christine Wang, speaker of the Senate, said while working in Washington D.C. she used a similar bike system and experienced difficulty returning her bike at popular locations because of overflow. Wang also said she was concerned of this becoming an issue for students biking to popular spots on campus like DuSable Hall or the Holmes Student Center.

Martin said a representative from the bike company will come out and check the different bike racks and relocate bikes to avoid overflow and ensure students can return their bikes without issue.

Expanding Barsema Parking

Representatives of the SA are advocating for an expansion of the Barsema Hall parking lot.

Barsema Hall is home to the College of Business. Currently there are two parking lots on Garden Road and students often have to use street parking because of the lack of available spots.

“I’ve been working with Senator Martin on possibly expanding the parking lot in Barsema, seeing if that’s a possible thing we could do,” said Essence Coleman, director of student life. “I think it will be very beneficial to business students, especially being one, I know parking in Barsema can be very hectic at times.”

Martin said he has personally done a lot of research for this potential project and will be bringing it up to parking services with Coleman at the March 8 meeting.

#NoShameCampaign Continues

SA is continuing their work in promoting mental health and ending the stigma through the #NoShameCampaign.

Jack Barth, director of Public Affairs, discussed the launching of the #NoShameCampaign blog for students to share their stories and promote self-acceptance. Barth said the blog, spearheaded by Wang, will launch Monday.

“It’s going to be a blog where people can express the journeys that they’ve made with mental health or anything really that they feel they’d like to talk about to help people feel more comfortable in their own skin,” Barth said.

Luis Flores, director of Cultural Affairs, and Coleman are currently working on a mental health seminar they hope to run in April as part of the #NoShameCampaign.

“We’ve been working on a mental health seminar that we’re going to be putting on in April, so it’s going to be talking about how mental health affects different communities,” Coleman said.

Clarification: The above story has been updated to reflect accurate information regarding the potential bike share program to be introduced by parking services. The article previously stated the program would be introduced March 19; that date has been pushed back, and the timeline is undetermined.