UF’s Student Nighttime Auxiliary Patrol will ask for more funding this Summer.
The University Police Department will request about $526,000 from Student Government on July 1, said Officer Wayne Clark, a UPD spokesman and the SNAP coordinator, said. This request will go toward van repairs, employee salaries, gas, maintaining the TapRide app and maintaining radios used in vans. The amount requested is slightly more than in past years.
SNAP, which gives rides to UF students from 6:30 p.m. to 3 a.m. every day during the Fall and Spring semesters and from 8:30 p.m. to 3 a.m. in the Summer, gave about 126,000 rides in 2014, he said.
In 2015, the service gave more than 140,000 rides.
Clark said he thinks the increase is due to a greater number of SNAP vehicles.
“We went from technically four vans in Fall 2014, and in that time, we would add a fifth van during peak hours,” Clark said.
Now, SNAP has seven vans.
“In Fall 2014, we were dealing with the influence of the Gainesville Grabber,” he said, referring to a series of assaults on campus during Fall 2014.
All seven vans run every night, he said.
Amy Mendez, an 18-year-old business administration freshman, said she frequently uses SNAP.
“I don’t have a car on campus, so the fact that the wait time is short is helpful when I’m in a rush or when the weather is bad,” Mendez said.
