The weather outside is frightful, and the promise of the Huskie Bus Line has students huddling for warmth at the plastic-paneled stops. Welcome back to winter in DeKalb, where the wind never stops pummeling the senses and can cause a brain freeze if you breathe too fast.

This same weather keeps sidewalks coated in ice and makes traversing DeKalb an adventure worthy of Viking legend. On a given day, 30 students or more may be waiting for the bus at 9 a.m. With such a number, it’s no surprise to them when the bus, filled to maximum capacity, cannot stop to pick up more riders.

This is the experience of what Student Association president Adam Novotney calls the “sardine cans” – where students push and claw their way through to stake a claim on a square foot of floor space, which might support a pair of feet, but not a student wearing three layers of clothing and a backpack with British literature and anatomy textbooks.

The key here is that a single bus only holds so many people before it is absolutely, undeniably full. The guy walking into class 10 minutes late with frost-bitten cheeks would tell you this, if his scarf wasn’t frozen to his neck and his thoughts weren’t entirely consumed by silent curses to the bus system and the SA that didn’t provide sufficient equipment to accommodate him.

Then again, the SA is working on getting a global positioning system for tracking buses to be available by fall 2007, at a cost far below adding a new bus. The system would employ a tracking system with displays at some of the stops, or that students can check on the Web before running out in the snow.

“Convenience is important to the average student,” Novotney said, and with the tracking system, students can plan whether to wait or just hoof it.

Of course, even Novotney knows the tracking system won’t solve overcrowding, and the drivers know this too. The snow must have kept some students from waiting; the No. 3 bus radio carried the sound of another driver who said, “Either they’re learning, or they didn’t get up this morning.”

It seems the drivers may not realize the economics; the bus system exists for the students, not the drivers. In fact, $1.3 million of student fees pay for the SA, and a large portion of this funds the buses. Our representatives attend weekly SA meetings and have the power to adjust the system to work for us.

This means if the bus system were to add an extra bus into the rotation, the SA would be the one to sign the order. The tracking system might make the wait easier, but it can’t accommodate the extra riders.

When your face is crammed into another rider’s armpit while you fight to maintain balance, rather than rationalize the situation as normal student life, call up any of your district’s SA representatives and voice your opinions.

After all, that’s what they’re there for.