The student senate almost suspended distribution of emergency cab ride cards on campus Wednesday. But after receiving a four-page memo from the president of the emergency service regarding the progress the company had made in fixing transportation problems, senators decided yesterday to continue with the program and the distribution of cards.

Student Lifeline, Inc. ÷ a company that gives free cab rides 24 hours a day to cardholding students, staff and faculty in cases of emergency ÷ has been plagued by problems since its inception at UA.

These problems included malfunctioning service with Discount Cab and cardholders who couldn't get rides.

UA alum and Student Lifeline, Inc., president Richard Signarino said that all problems were fixed and that the problems stemmed not from Lifeline, but from the cab company Lifeline contracted with in Tucson.

ASUA's only responsibility was to distribute the 50,000 Lifeline cards and pay Lifeline's sales representative $2,700 to sell ads. The revenue from the advertisements goes into a pool of Lifeline resources that pays cab companies for the rides.

Eight thousand of the paper Lifeline cards have been handed out at UA so far. They are about the size of a credit card folded up, but fold out two directions to display advertisements of local businesses on the front and back.

Cardholders call Student Lifeline at the number on the card and a dispatcher calls a cab in Tucson.

New York-based Lifeline originally contracted with Discount Cab, a Phoenix-based company, to handle these calls. Discount Cab does not have a Tucson branch yet, so the company could not provide rides.

Signarino said he had trouble contacting and dealing with Discount Cab after the program started.

"If they lie to you and they don't tell you what's going on, we're 2,400 miles away in New York · we're as much a victim of circumstance as the school," Signarino said.

On Sept. 20, after a week of complaints from students, Lifeline operators and ASUA, Signarino asked another company, Yellow Cab, to take over emergency ride service for UA cardholders.

Lifeline will not go back to Discount Cab for service if the company establishes a Tucson branch, Signarino said. However, Craig Hughes, Discount Cab president, was not aware of Signarino's plans and said he expected to have a prepared Tucson branch to take care of Lifeline calls within a month.

Hughes said they have already paid $1,660 to advertise on the cards.

Lifeline sold ads totaling $8,000 to local businesses, Signarino said. This amount fell short of the $41,000 revenue Signarino said was stipulated in the agreement between ASUA and Lifeline. There is no such clause in the agreement.

Lifeline said they have lost $2,500 from the UA program at UA, because they had to pay for the cost of printing the cards and accompanying posters, not to mention 40 percent of the advertising revenue to the salesman. Yet Lifeline wants to continue service at UA because Signarino said the company cares about student safety.

Yellow Cab had received one Lifeline call as of Tuesday, said Xenia Thornton, communications manager at Yellow Cab. Signarino said six or seven UA cardholders had received rides this week.

Yellow Cab said it is prepared to deliver many more rides, as long as Lifeline pays the bills.

"We can have between 50 and 80 cabs on the road · As long as (the 50,000 cards) are not all used in one day, I don't see it being a problem," Thornton said.

The contract between ASUA and Lifeline states that Lifeline will provide free cab rides to anyone with an emergency. But people cannot overuse the cards and misuse the service, or Lifeline will discontinue service at UA.

Signarino said that people should not go out with the intentions of using the cards or UA will end up like Tufts University, which had its program cancelled just 48 hours after Lifeline found out about gross misuse.

So far, one UA cardholder has used the service to get his impounded automobile, and another because her ankle hurt, Signarino said.

ASUA Sen. Adam Bronnenkant, who heads ASUA's end of the Lifeline program at UA, envisions Student Lifeline will become a success.

"With assurance from the president of Student Lifeline and the manager of Yellow cab, I'm confident that the program will be efficiently executed from this point," he said.

Bronnenkant said that if there continues to be complaints about the cards, ASUA will take action.