The only alternative left to the frustrated student is Safety Walk, instituted to plug the gaps left by the unreliable mechanical transportation system.

To some degree, this succeeds. Before, a student wishing to go from Lamont to Quincy would fall through the cracks of Harvard transportation, unable to utilize the shuttle, the escort or HUPD. Students who need to travel short distances can now do so without fear, as the organizers intended.

But the walking service is also being exploited by Harvard as a direct substitute for the normal transportation system. Apparently, as dispatchers have told us in the past, the Harvard escort service defines a "short distance" as the walk from Plympton St. to the Quad.

The founders of the walking service had a great idea. More kudos to them. But it's in danger of becoming an excuse for the University to shirk its transportation duties to students. Quite frankly, there would probably be much less demand for a walking service if the escort service, shuttle buses and HUPD worked the way they should.

We're not asking for limousine service at our beck and call. Every Harvard student knew before coming here that some walking was part of the package, and that, weather-wise, Harvard is no Stanford or Berkeley.

We don't have the right to demand that snow and rain never touch our heads or feet. But we do have the right to ask for secure transportation conditions at more than $20,000 tuition per year.

If the university keeps slacking off on its responsibilities, getting Quadded could someday mean certain death--literally.

Marion B. Gammill '95 and Jeannette A. Vargas '95 like living in the Quad. Honest.

Garden Streeters have their own phrase for something that won't happen: Waiting for the shuttle bus.'