As the bus winds its way through South Campus, the driver usually calls out stops such as Winding Ridge, Slocum and Small Road.

But on Saturday nights, things are little different. When the doors open at Lambreth Lane last Saturday, driver Rodney Churchwell smiled, pointed and said, ‘The party’s that way!’

For many Main Campus residents, the best way and often the only way to reach weekend parties on South is Centro bus 344 – and vice versa. The South Campus bus makes a continuous loop from College Place down Comstock Avenue, past Manley Field House and through the twisting bowels of South. The common use of this mass transit by inebriated late-night partygoers has earned it an affectionate nickname: the ‘drunk bus.’

The drunk bus is notorious among students for playing host to countless acts of inebriated hooliganism. Undeclared freshmen Peter Lehar and Chris Ercoli and freshman history major Bryce Wahl were once accosted by a belligerent – and very drunk – sports fan.

‘This kid was arguing with us about baseball,’ Ercoli said. ‘He was totally drunk.’

The litigious lush even attempted to debate the talents of Billy Edelin, Wahl said.

But the trio of freshmen rarely runs into such problems. On the drunk bus, ‘people seem to be pretty jolly,’ Lehar said. None of the three has ever been on a bus when another rider vomited.

That makes them pretty lucky.

‘I’ve been on a bus where a girl actually threw up,’ said Maureen Gardner, freshman hospitality and management major. Gardner said she does not mind that students ride the bus after partying, but wishes they wouldn’t be so loud and rowdy.

‘I just wish people would be quiet – usually after coming back from South, I have a headache,’ Gardner said.

Allison Mitchell, freshman Spanish and broadcast journalism major, once had a more up-close-and-personal experience with drunk-bus upchucking. She boarded the bus after a night of partying, when the bus driver asked one of her friends if he was going to throw up. The friend promised he would not, but as the bus got rolling, he began to show signs that he could not keep that promise.

‘We didn’t know what to do, so we all just put out our hands (to catch the vomit),’ Mitchell said.

In the event that a student does vomit on the bus, all passengers and the driver would have to switch to another bus, according to Uriah O’Niel, a Centro driver for three years and driver of the Friday night shuttle for one year. He said the drivers do not have time to clean up puke and still keep their schedule.

Fran Maxwell, undeclared freshman and friend of Mitchell, had another drunk-bus memory to share. En route back to Main Campus one night, Maxwell watched a literally tipsy student sway back and forth and then topple over.

‘(The bus) was jam packed … when he fell, it was like the domino effect,’ said Maxwell, describing the rest of the standers on the bus collapsing one after another.

Most students, O’Niel said, are gracious and don’t make trouble for the drivers.

‘I get a few rowdy students,’ he said, ‘but I try to remember that they’re young.’

O’Niel has only removed a student from his bus once or twice. He said he has no tolerance for fighting or drinking alcoholic beverages on the bus.

One of O’Niel’s only experiences with disobedience came when a student attempted to open a can of beer on his bus. The driver stopped the bus and told the student he would have to put the beer away or get off.

‘While he was arguing with me, he was waving his hands around wildly,’ recalled O’Niel. ‘He got off the bus laughing and said, ‘I’m gonna drink this right here!’ When he opened the can, it sprayed all over him.’

O’Niel said he reconciled with the student shortly thereafter, and sees him from time to time. ‘We still laugh about it,’ O’Niel said.

In fact, both O’Niel and Churchwell expressed general feelings of goodwill toward the students they ferry, drunk or otherwise.

‘I joke around with students – they’re crazy, I swear,’ O’Niel said.

Churchwell, who has only had to deal with one instance of vomit and one on-bus fight, has similar feelings.

‘Most (students) are all right. I just wish they’d learn to read,’ he said. ‘If it says North Campus, you’re going to North. If it says South Campus, you’re going to South.’

The feelings of respect were reciprocated.

Both Mitchel and Maxwell had high praise for the drivers.

‘I would give props to the bus driver,’ said Mitchell.

Added Maxwell, ‘No matter how obnoxious people are being, they’re pretty nice.’

Beyond meeting kindly drivers, many students feel the drunk bus is a place where the party atmosphere can be extended a little longer, often putting an entertaining cap on a night of revelry.

Freshman ceramics major Ali Thorell knows this firsthand. Her favorite drunk bus memory is of watching another sloshed student do flips on the bus’ handrails.

‘He was really, really plastered,’ Thorell said, ‘but it was funny to watch.’

Published on March 27, 2005 at 12:00 pm