ASU's Bike Co-op began offering students an on-campus location to fix their bicycles more than 25 years ago, but the shop lost its location early this semester along with more than $10,000 in funding.
In spring 2003, the staff of the co-op was told to relocate the shop to the Palo Verde East residence hall. Its former location in the Division of Undergraduate Academic Services building will be used for a new DUAS program.
The shop was set up in part of the resource room on the first floor of the hall, but never had a chance to take its first customer. A demolition crew had started renovation to enlarge the room, said Jeff Miller, associate director of campus affairs for the Residence Hall Association.
"Basically, there was no communication between the two groups of people [Bike Co-op and demolition crew]," he said. "They just didn't talk to one another, and [the Bike Co-op] got shut down indirectly."
Erica Dermer, student services director for Undergraduate Student Government, which oversees the co-op, said the shop was scheduled to open on Sept. 8 at PV East.
"That morning, I got a call on my cell from [shop manager] Ian Stuart saying that one of the walls to the co-op was being torn down," she said.
Dermer said she was willing to move the location because the space was needed.
"We want this University to take priority for academics first; it's hard when you're a service," she said.
As a temporary solution, Dermer said, the USG will be purchasing three air compressors to be placed at north, center and south campus locations.
USG officials refused an offer by Residential Life to move the co-op into Sonora hall.
That location was too far from the center of campus, so USG vice president Kevin Bondelli and Dermer decided to stop the service until a new home could be found.
"We're not going to substitute our service just to be in a place," she said. "We want to provide the best service we can."
Until the Bike Co-op finds another location, its 2003-04 funding will probably be put into a student services budget, said Christina Gastelum, a senior office specialist for the USG.
That money could go to buy more electric carts for the Safety Escort Service, she said.
"It's such a great service that we'd like to expand [it] if we can't have the Bike Co-op open," Dermer said.
The four students hired to run the co-op have received one paycheck so far, Gastelum said.
"It was a botch by co-op," she said. "It's not their fault that we were moved out, so we paid them."
But the students will not be offered a position with any other USG service, she said.
"We don't have any openings for any other jobs," she said. "It really sucks because they were dependent on that pay, and now we don't have another place for it."
The University-funded co-op opened in 1976. Students could get professional help with fixing their bikes and order parts from catalogs at cheap prices.
Brad Graupner, a cultural anthropology sophomore, did not know bikes could be fixed on campus. He recently visited Tempe Bicycle on University Drive and Domenic's Cycling on Mill Avenue for parts.
"If I knew about a place like [Bike Co-Op], I would have definitely gone there."
Leigha Crump, a humanitarian studies junior, did not know about the campus shop either.
"I wish I would have known because then I could have gone on campus instead of having to go far away," she said.
When the co-op started, it regularly ordered parts at wholesale cost from Tempe Bicycle, which opened during the same year.
Tempe Bicycle owner Bud Morrison, who operates the shop with his wife Yvonne, said the two businesses had a working relationship.
"We'd save all the tubes that just had one hole in [them], which we don't patch. We'd save all them, and give them to the co-op," Bud said. "They'd let students patch them."
Bud said his relationship with the co-op has been "comfortable" and that the co-op serves a significant purpose for students.
"I want to see it survive in some fashion, and hopefully it'll be as a vehicle for students to take care of their bikes," he said.
Reach the reporter at michael.miklofsky@asu.edu.
