Students at Saint Mary’s College will now have the option to be transported by a new ride service, advertising itself as an alternative to Blinkie, the College’s traditional van safety service for its students.
My-Glide will run in a five-mile radius of campus, from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays with a 14 passenger vehicle limited to Saint Mary’s students.
Hank Matthews, a recently retired Saint Mary’s security officer of 13 years, shared he created the service to help Saint Mary’s students avoid “sketchy” Uber drivers by providing a reliable service and price rate, with the motto “we don’t sell fear – we promote safety.”
The service also offers school pickups for elementary students at Corpus Christi School and wedding reservations.
Speaking on his inspiration for creating the service, Matthews said, “I noticed there was a serious gap in Uber availability after 2 a.m., and being a security officer, a lot of times we would pick people up at The Grotto or have to come and get them. They were sketchy at best sometimes and gave angst to the students. So I thought this service would fill a void to get the Saint Mary’s students back safely and I would go till 4 a.m.”
Starting last Friday with a few rides, the service’s operations have now been delayed to the first weekend of February due to weather conditions. The current price for rides is $7.50 for each person per way, with priority drop offs for Eddy Street Commons, Trader Joe’s, Linebacker Lounge, Corby’s Irish Pub and Hesburgh Library, also known as the “Fab Five Spots.”
A previous version of the website detailed plans to offer the service under a subscription of $300 a semester, charging riders an additional $5 per person per ride. There would be a 200 subscriber cap, and subscribers would be offered a swag bag, a My-Glide shirt, drink cover lids, a scrunchie, stickers and phone wallets. The drop in prices and abandonment of subscription-based services was adjusted to reflect recent feedback and to improve user numbers.
A discounted price will also be offered in the next month called a “five for five” special where students will pay $5 per ride each way in February as students become more familiar with the service. Updates on free rides are given through email blasts, such as rides given on Wednesdays to Trader Joe’s which users can enter the queue for.
Users are asked to sign up for a ride no later than a day prior on the website’s queue. Requested information includes their rider group, drop-off and pick-up locations and passenger count.
Students pay inside of the van using Square, an online payment platform. Rules unique to the ride service in contrast to Blinkie include only offering rides for Saint Mary’s students, no food being allowed, wearing seatbelts is enforced and a $100 charge for damage to the van.
The service also has a concierge team, including juniors Madison Weaver and Gia Cvitkovich and senior Bella Sandoval, who work as student representatives and support the My-Glide social media presence. They have been posting on the service’s TikTok and Instagram pages since November. They have been compensated for their work and will receive free rides.
Sandoval shared that she found out about the service when Matthews was making a round in Le Mans during his time as an officer and she asked what he was planning to do after retirement. She saw it as complementary to her resume and her field as a communications major.
“He asked if I wanted to be a part of the team, and I said yes, because it sounded really fun and exciting, and it’s something that I felt proud to be involved in. It’s a new concept that hadn’t been introduced yet around the tri-campus,” Sandoval said.
My-Glide hosted an open house on Dec. 12 from noon to 2 p.m. between the Student Center and McCandless Hall for students to see the van and grab free giveaways, with approximately 30 students that stopped by. This open house was not approved by the College, as My-Glide is not an approved organization.
Matthews is still considered to be an employee of the College, but the College has not shown outward support of his business. Matthews explained that this has meant My-Glide is facing challenges to promote the service to students.
“It’s just the fact that the cooperation from Saint Mary’s was very … I couldn’t even put up flyers,” he described. “And whatever their reason, I’ll accept and not have bitterness about it. It just didn’t certainly help me for something that I thought would be helpful for the students since there’s no coverage.”
He believes that My-Glide is a beneficial service for the Saint Mary’s community to use as it is only open to Saint Mary’s students with no tips, surge pricing nor cancellation fees.
“As a security officer, that causes me concern [on Uber safety]. I have daughters, and I thought My-Glide was a good representation to let them know, ‘This is for you, this is yours,’” Matthews explained.
Cvitkovich shared that the team has received no support from the College and has been excluded from the larger conversation and potential approval from the administration. This includes flyers being torn down from McCandless Hall and Le Mans Hall by resident assistants and hall directors, along with the lack of cooperation from the College’s social media team.
“We asked Chuck if we could take a picture of him wearing our shirt and the school said no … So that’s what’s frustrating to us, is that we literally have no support from our school and we did this for our school and that’s what’s upsetting,” she shared. “And I also think the sad truth is it’s also because they’re not getting a cut of the profits.”
Sandoval explained that it is disappointing to see how the administration has been unexpectedly stomping down a beneficial service to students that offers a unique advantage to their students.
“As far as a message to Saint Mary’s admin, we really are just at a loss for words,” she stated. “And we don’t really understand why they would shoot us down when we’re trying to offer students something that could potentially keep them safe and prevent danger from happening in the early morning hours.”
The 2024-25 student organization handbook from the Office of Student Involvement explains that any campus group who do not have approval from OSI do not share the same benefits as official student organizations and will need to pay to use college facilities.
