One of the most difficult parts of living on-campus is the difficulty of getting off of it on weekend nights. Moving off brings the promise of a kitchen, life without a resident assistant and, yes, proximity to the bars. University Plaza, however, is an entity all its own.

Because of its location on Vestal Parkway, it is just as land-locked as campus. Students who want to go Downtown on weekends need to go to campus to take an OCCT bus. At the end of last semester, UP management unveiled plans for a new Downtown shuttle to take residents to the city on weekend nights.

However, UP residents are still waiting on the bus. This leaves many students without a way to get Downtown from their homes, and instead they are left to try and pack into expensive and hard-to-get cabs or already-full buses.

Many students signed a lease at UP with the belief that their worries about getting to the bars to hang out with their friends were put to rest. UP management advertised the bus — posting photos and dubbing it the “State Street Express” — on Facebook to convince students to move there. For students torn between living on-campus or moving to an apartment complex, this bus was a deal-maker. To pull a bait-and-switch like this is unacceptable. UP residents are paying close to $1,000 a month to live there, and it is completely unfair to keep them locked in leases based on empty promises.

For once, this transportation issue is not the University’s fault. OCCT services UP during the week, and also stops there on late-night weekend runs Downtown. However, the buses are extremely crowded, sometimes leaving UP residents stranded. Broome County Transit doesn’t lighten the load for students living in UP either, since the last BC bus that services UP ends its run by 9:30 p.m on Fridays and 6:30 p.m. on Saturdays.

It should be noted that UP changed management in the middle of the summer. And though we might normally agree that the new management should not be beholden to the decisions of its predecessors, in this scenario there is simply no other option.

The situation with UP’s shuttle reflects poorly on the so-called “luxury” student-living complexes in Binghamton. It is becoming increasingly obvious that what’s supposed to be top-tier student housing is owners and contractors taking advantage of students and their anxious parents. These buildings go up quickly, and the goal is to get students living in them as soon as possible. While sleek on the surface, they ultimately demonstrate the same issues of a house that costs hundreds of dollars less a month. It is not right to brag about a full-service, fully-equipped living option and deliver less than that to students, many of whom are choosing these complexes because they are unnerved by the idea of living more independently.

The current issue for UP residents is a reflection of a common theme that seems to be happening to students when they move off-campus. If the students are willing to pay for these housing options, the managers need to deliver. UP needs to make amends to students. UP needs to get that bus.