Students will have to find their own transportation to Franklin Street this Halloween.
After much discussion with Chapel Hill city officials over the past few weeks, Duke Student Government leaders announced at the group's meeting Wednesday night that they will not be running buses to the annual festivities.
"Basically we tried a bunch of options," said DSG President Jordan Giordano, a senior. "Everybody [we talked to] said, 'Yes you can run buses, but you can't park them here.'"
Chapel Hill's city manager was open to Duke students attending the festivities, but left it up to DSG to find parking, Giordano said.
"We just couldn't find a place to park a bus," he said. "About 70 people would have been able to utilize it, and it would have been a huge expense.... It was really a no-win situation, and we thought that perhaps we should allocate the funds for something else."
Three weeks ago, Duke University Union officials decided not to charter buses to Franklin Street in response to Chapel Hill's decision to limit the party to local residents.
Last week, however, DSG officers announced that talks were underway with city officials and representatives from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's student government to find parking options.
Students may still hitch a ride to Chapel Hill on the Robertson Bus, which runs from the Chapel Circle to the Morehead Planetarium at UNC, but it only runs until 11 p.m. Fridays. Sophomore Andrew Brown, vice president for Durham and regional affairs, said he encourages students to stay on campus and attend Devil's Eve rather than find their own methods of transportation to Franklin Street.
"There will probably be a big traffic jam.... Most of the roads immediately around Franklin Street will be closed," he said. "They will kick everyone off Franklin street at midnight anyway, [so] I would encourage everyone to stay here or do something else."
In other business:
DSG approved a $400 funding request by Athletics and Campus Services Senator Jenna McNeill, a junior, to run a bus from West Campus to UNC for the Duke vs. UNC women's basketball game Feb. 9.
"This is a part of a program to gauge student interest," she said. "We are trying to get more Duke students to go to away games so that we have a larger fan base [at them]."
Sophomore Gregory Morrison, a Chronicle columnist, was elected president pro tempore of the Senate. Along with normal administrative duties, he will be charged with reviewing DSG's bylaws and constitution to look for any irregularities or outdated material.
The new attendance system, in which senators swipe into meetings with their DukeCards, was used for the second time at Wednesday's meeting. But due to technical failures, executives reverted last night to the roll call method for some senators.
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