University students rely on bus service everyday.The University is a walking campus, after all, and some students rely on buses to avoid long hikes to class from their parked cars. But dissatisfaction with the bus system has spread, and students deserve action. The University held an open forum Thursday with Mitch Skyler, a bus consultant hired by Student Government, to get a feel for what needs improvement.The forum was announced via e-mail on Thursday, Sept. 25 at 8:25 a.m. and was scheduled to take place that afternoon from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. and the next morning from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. – a last minute warning to students.About 20 students showed up for the forum and gave their suggestions on how to improve the system. These suggestions included the timeliness, amount and reliability of buses. But the forum wasn’t the only thing on Skyler’s agenda. He personally monitored the bus system from Wednesday to Sunday during his visit to the University.  Talk about a short visit.The buses are crowded regardless of what day it is, but monitoring the system from Wednesday to Sunday is not full coverage. To understand and better evaluate the system, Skyler should have started coverage Monday and gotten a taste of a full week of University transportation.He’s missing two vital days of transit that boast many of the problems students are having. Skyler told students this visit was his first of many to rebuild the transit system from the ground up. He took students suggestions and complaints at the forum, but left students with no concrete answers.Skyler’s visit cost the University $41,000 – a hefty sum of money for a four-day evaluation that left students with unanswered questions and unaddressed problems.    We understand Skyler  wouldn’t come to the University armed and ready to immediately change the system, but presenting some sort of plan or evaluative statement that could give the community an understanding of what he’s thinking wouldn’t hurt.Skyler plans to return to the University in about a month. That’s one more month of havoc for students using the bus system. So — as usual — plan to leave your apartment an hour early and get to class late.—-Contact the Editorial Board at [email protected]