Carleton’s tunnels are full of those seeking to escape the cold reality of winter, making the daily plod to the various buildings on campus.
And there is a common fantasy that runs among students about riding the carts they see most times they walk the tunnels.
Dreams that a group of first-year students from Russell Residence lived in their winter semester two years ago. Ashley Wylie, 20 and now a third-year psychology student, says she was one of the drivers in a tunnel cart high-jacking that ended in a police escort back to Carleton campus.
Using their mail-keys, seven to eight students were able to start two of the newer maintenance carts in Carleton’s tunnels and drive them away at approximately 1 a.m., Wylie says.
According to Wylie, they then took the carts to the athletics facilities parking lot and had races. Afterwards, the students, three on each cart, drove out to the Billings area, where they began giving rides to passers-by.
It was while driving back to campus at approximately 5:30 a.m., Wylie says, that the students saw a police cruiser. Wylie, the lead driver, panicked and swerved into a lamp post. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
The students were stopped by the police in the car, and soon after Carleton’s campus safety arrived. Two students, including Wylie, were allowed to drive the carts back to campus, escorted by police and campus safety.
The students then had to wait two weeks before meeting with director of student affairs Ryan Flannagan, according to Wylie.
“Every other person who was on those carts, they regretted it a lot. And they were so scared,” Wylie says.
However, the students were lucky in that they were dealt with under the Student’s Rights and Responsibility’s policy and required to give or raise a donation of $50 each to a charity, instead of being charged by the police.
“In my dealing with them they were a nice group of students and I think they just made a poor decision,” Flannagan says.
The loophole that allowed Wylie and the other students to start the carts with their mail keys has also been rectified, according to Flannagan.
“These students went through the students’ Right and Responsibilities policy, received sanction, and that was the end of the matter.”
“The main message is that students shouldn’t be using the tunnel carts – they can be quite dangerous,” Flannagan says.
Joy rides aside, the carts serve a serious purpose.
“They’re primarily used for moving materials and tools around the campus to maintain and operate the buildings” says Darryl Boyce, Carleton’s assistant vice-president of Maintenance Services.
The carts are used by a range of university services, including Food Services, Maintenance Services, Computer Services, CUSERT, and Facilities Management Planning, according to Kevin Gallinger, the Assistant Director of Maintenance Services.
There are approximately 65 carts in service at Carleton, according to Gallinger.
And if tunnel travellers want a ride, they may get lucky.
Gilles Monast is a manager of Carleton’s library administration services, and uses the maintenance carts on occasion to move between the library and other departments. He’s been asked for a lift before. “If we’re going the same way, sure.”