A bus driver transporting about 50 Syracuse University students pulled over on I-81 about 20 minutes north of Binghamton. The driver turned the engine off and bus lights went on.

“Okay, so we are officially broken down,” the bus driver, who requested to be called ‘Joe Bus,’ said into the microphone. “We’re having some transmission problems.”

The student passengers groaned loudly, making sure the bus driver could hear. They were scheduled to arrive at SU at 5 p.m. It was about 6 p.m. when the bus broke down and there was still about an hour left in the trip.

“I’m calling a cab,” a student yelled. “Can I call my friend to come scoop me right now? I have a paper due tomorrow.”

The bus was carrying students traveling back to SU on Sunday after Thanksgiving break. Every year, Student Association organizes $99 bus trips to and from major cities for Thanksgiving. This bus — Bus One — was bound to SU from Union Station in Washington, D.C.

The plan, the bus driver said, was to wait for Bus Two, which was also coming from Union Station, to take another group of about 50 students to SU and come back. Until Bus Two cold come back, no one was allowed to leave the bus.

Kamaria View, an SA assembly member and passenger on Bus One, said students weren’t allowed to leave even if someone picked them up from the side of the road because SA is technically liable for everyone on the bus.

“I felt like they were holding us hostage,” said Taylor Mon’E Middleton, a senior CRS major. “It was straight bullsh*t.”

View said she called members of SA, including comptroller Phil Kramer, after students on the bus complained and called for a refund. She said SA held a cabinet meeting to discuss the matter, but said a decision would not be made until Monday.

In responding to more complaints as students became restless after more than an hour stranded on the bus, View added that SA would also review how it funds the annual Thanksgiving bus trips. Under the rules in the finance code, she said, SA has to solicit three bids and pick the cheapest one. In this case, the cheapest was Wade Tours.

“F*ck Wade Tours,” said Sophia Upshaw, a freshman engineering and computer science major.

SA President Aysha Seedat said in a text message to The Daily Orange that she will visit the director of student activities on Monday to “figure out how to handle this unfortunate incident.”

The SA Twitter account also tweeted an apology after the bus arrived at SU.

“On behalf of SA, we apologize for the students who were inconvenienced on the way back from D.C. on the round-trip buses!” the tweet read.

By the time Bus Two arrived more than two hours later, the passengers had been sitting on Bus One for about 10 hours.

“I’m past angry — I just wanted to get the f*ck off this bus,” a student said as Bus Two arrived.

In that time, students complained about missing important meetings and not having enough time to complete assignments.

At one point, a student asked the entire bus if anyone had read “Ivanhoe” to help another student with her essay.

Bus One departed from Union Station in Washington D.C. at 10 a.m. and arrived at SU at 9:30 p.m.

“It was the Thanksgiving trip from hell,” said David Fitzpatrick-Woodson, a sophomore inclusive early childhood special education major.

Published on November 29, 2015 at 11:14 pm

Contact Rachel: rsandler@syr.edu