Amherst College Emergency Medical Services (ACEMS) asks students to support a Senate initiative this Thursday.

ACEMS has been requesting funds for a new vehicle for some time now. Our current car, a Ford Crown Victoria obtained as a hand-me-down from the police, is critically unreliable. The car sometimes fails to start and often faces difficulty in getting up hills. Needless to say, it doesn’t meet ACEMS needs for a reliable response vehicle.

An electric car would make a lot of sense for ACEMS. All our driving is within a few miles of the center of campus, so we’d be getting the most out of its high city mpg and it wouldn’t be difficult to keep it charged. Our current car makes 16 mpg city, whereas the Volt would use practically no gas at all.

Some students have expressed worry with the cost. To quell these concerns, we would first like to mention that the College administration is offering $20,000 to help cover the costs of the car and charging station and is also paying for electricity for the charging station in perpetuity. Also, the money offered by the AAS is coming from AAS surpluses, funds that can only go towards capital improvements of this sort, and not towards clubs or other student events. This is NOT money taken away from typical student activity funds.

So please, for ACEMS, for the environment, and for Amherst’s contribution towards petroleum independence, vote yes on Thursday’s referendum.