Huskie Bus Line patrons may have noticed several changes to the mass transit system earlier this week.

The non-student rider fare increased from 75 cents to $1. Routes 2 and 7 no longer stop at Micro Solutions, Inc., 132 W. Lincoln Highway, and stops at Stadium View Apartments were added to Route 8. These changes took place Tuesday.

The Mass Transit Committee, which assists the Student Association president and mass transit director with the management of the Huskie Bus Line, voted to approve these changes Oct. 26. The committee decided to implement these changes at a Jan. 28 meeting.

The committee has met three times this semester, but only for discussion.

The committee is unable to vote or take formal action without seven members, said Josh Venaas, SA chief of staff and former mass transit director.

According to Article III, Section 1 of the SA Bylaws, “standing committees shall have no less than seven (7) members, including the chair and vice-chair.” According to Article III Section 2, the Mass Transit Committee is a standing committee.

The committee currently has less than the seven required members; five speaker-appointed senators serve on it.

According to Article III, Section 2 of the SA Bylaws, the speaker of the SA Senate appoints five senators while the SA president appoints the other four. Both appointments must have the approval of the SA Senate. The SA Mass Transit director is the 10th member of the committee.

The committee does not have any executively-appointed senators, nor did it last semester.

It is the duty of SA President Erik Calmeyer to appoint these members.

“I had people selected, but they never reached the Senate for approval,” Calmeyer said.

Austin Quick, acting chair of the Mass Transit Committee, said he is frustrated that the committee cannot conduct formal business without these four appointees.

“It’s a complete lack of leadership that [Calmeyer has] chosen this entire semester, and last semester, to appoint nobody,” he said.

The committee also does not have a director of mass transit.

Last semester, after Jonathan Kite’s resignation on Nov. 18, Calmeyer appointed Venaas as SA chief of staff, leaving a vacancy in Venaas’ former position as director of mass transit. Calmeyer appointed Luke Walter, junior finance major, in his stead shortly after.

The SA Senate voted to deny the confirmation of Walter as mass transit director Jan. 23. The position has been vacant ever since.

Venaas said he and Calmeyer will conduct final interviews for a director today and appoint someone to the position temporarily before the vote can come before the senate either this Sunday or Feb. 27. Venaas said Calmeyer will choose four interested students-at-large for approval by the senate on Feb. 27.

Last semester, the Mass Transit Committee reached its seven-member minimum without executive appointees by conducting business with six speaker-appointed senators and the director, rather than five senators as mandated by the SA Bylaws.

Venaas said he was unaware that only five speaker-appointed senators should make up the committee.

“We didn’t know that until Erik [Calmeyer] was going through the bylaws at the beginning of this semester, so last semester, I thought, procedurally, we were fine,” he said. “I was completely unaware there was anything like that in the bylaws, even the year before I didn’t know that. I will take the blame for that. It’s something I should have looked into…we made that mistake, but we’re moving forward, appointing the people we need to appoint. And definitely this semester we’re going to have the five senators and five students-at-large on the committee that are going to be appointed so we don’t have any more issues.”

The Huskie Bus Line changes implemented on Tuesday were supposed to have taken effect at the end of last semester, Venaas said.

They were delayed because of the position changes within the SA after Kite stepped down, Venaas said. He said the committee also needed time to notify the public of the changes, so he wanted to wait to implement them until after winter break when the buses returned to their regular schedule of operation.

“I didn’t want the changes happening over a month period when there’s no one here,” he said. “So we had decided to wait until second semester when we got back. As soon as the committee could meet they got together and set a date for that.”

SA Senator Brian Troutman, a member of the Mass Transit Committee, said he is happy with the progress the committee is making.

“Last semester, we came up with a lot of ideas,” he said. “It’s this semester, though, that we’re implementing them.”