Student Senate’s meeting approved a car rental program for campus along with its mission statement for their 58th session.    

Enterprise CarShare

Approved in a voice vote with no dissenters, the Senate passed a bill in support of a car sharing program with the Enterprise car rental company.

The program will now go to the administration for approval, with the Senate’s vote proof of student support.

The idea to deepen the relationship between the university and Enterprise, which already rents vehicles to teams and organizations for transport, has been in the works for a while.

Rebecca Shannon, parking office coordinator, said it was being examined before she started in July 2013.

Shannon said the project would allow students who may not have transportation, international students and students too young to rent to access vehicles for specified amounts of time.

She said ideally the program would further the environmental goals of the university by allowing students and staff to continue to commute to work by means other than cars, and rent them on an as-needed basis.

“Since we limit the number of parking spots, we know there are students with travel needs and no transportation,” Shannon said. “This gives them another option.”

According to the bill, the campus would have two rental cars available to students to be rented for specific amounts of time through the parking office.

The rentals, which were described in the meeting as two mid-sized sedans, would be housed in parking spaces on upper campus.

The program would provide “a substantial benefit to on-campus students who do not have a car on campus,” according to the bill.

Christian Paese, director of the finance commission, was one of the senators to voice their support for the bill.

“I think it’s great to look to free market solutions for transportation for students on campus,” Paese said. “I look forward to seeing this move forward.”

Shannon, who was previously employed by Enterprise, said this is a program that other UW campuses including UW-Stout and UW-La Crosse currently use.

She said while working at Enterprise, weekend rentals would increase with a number of student renters, so there is a demand that this program would address.