This summer, the Big Green Bus will not travel on what would have been its 10th cross-country trek. Due to various logistical issues — including lack of physical transportation and an insufficient recruitment draw — Cedar Farwell ’17, who would have been a member of the 2014 crew, said the organization will not conduct programming this summer.
For the last nine years, the biodiesel-fueled, student-driven bus has traveled across the U.S. to visit sustainable businesses and organizations.
Past and current crew members highlighted several prohibitive issues: the viability of the physical bus, the application, low student interest and a high concentration of freshmen among applicants.
The bus broke down at the end of last summer, 2013 crew member Jordan Kastrinsky ’16 said. Though it was repaired in California, it was ultimately deemed unsuitable to be running by the Greyhound Company, the group’s partner, Kastrinsky said.
In the past, the program has received over 80 applications, but last summer’s group said it wanted to make sure that students were not just in it for the road trip, 2013 crew member Krystyna Miles ’16 said.
This year’s application was longer and included an outline of the program’s mission and goals.
“We wanted to be transparent about the work level,” Miles said. “It’s a huge, huge undertaking that has to come from very driven, passionate students.”
Kastrinsky said the revised application contributed to the lower application numbers.
Additionally, upperclassmen are already involved in various programs, which may contribute to the lack of applications from older students, Miles said.
No longer having a viable Greyhound bus has also raised additional questions, Farwell said.
Kastrinsky said acquiring a new bus without Greyhound’s support would be challenging.
“They would have to find someone who would be able to donate the bus, they would have to find a donatable bus and then on top of that they would have to retrofit it and spend a lot of time with that,” he said. “If none of them are necessarily mechanics or engineers of any sort, that would be pretty hard.”
During this process, Farwell said, next year’s bus crew was aided by leadership from previous bus members. Prior participants spoke with this year’s group about the history of the bus and its potential future, but the current group did not make a plan as to how it would move forward, he said.
“We definitely could have used more direction from upperclassman leaders,” he said.
Miles noted, however, that each year’s crew is responsible for determining the program’s focus. Her crew spent months leading up to the program conceptualizing the mission, she said.
Approximately five chosen participants for the upcoming summer were still actively involved early this term, Farwell said.
The bus has had a varied history in terms of its programming and mission. In 2005, a group of 15 ultimate frisbee players who sought an environmentally way to travel to tournaments bought a bus and, after painting it green and getting it to run on waste vegetable oil, began their road trip.
Although the original team talked about the merits of using waste vegetable oil as fuel, the bus’s message soon grew into a broader sustainability-related platform, with each summer’s crew altering it slightly.
Last year’s bus route brought participants to over 20 stops around the country. At each stop, the 12 students and alumni focused on storytelling, understanding other communities and inspiration, not education.
Meegan Daigler ’14, the bus’s 2013 general manager, declined to comment by press time.
This article ran in print on May 7 with the headline "Big Green Bus cancels year’s programming."
