Jon Bosley has found a way to bring his passion for biking to campus.

The Recreation Fitness and Wellness Center is adapting a bike repair program that will be open to faculty, staff and students.

Bosley, assistant program director of Outdoor Adventure and Climbing Center, said during his time as an undergrad he experienced a program similar to what he hopes to start here. He felt it was a program that campus needed.

The program will have two phases. The first phase will be an opportunity for students to work on their own bikes.

If someone has a bike they want to learn more about or that needs some work done to it, this is their chance to use the resources around them to do so. These sessions will last from 4:30-6:30 p.m. beginning Sept. 31. The second phase of the program is something Bosley hopes will be ready by spring.

This phase will give students without a bike of their own a chance to participate also.

Through donations, Bosley plans to have bikes that need repairs available for students to fix and then keep.

The donations have come from a few different areas some of, which include campus security, the Evansville Police Department, Housing and individual donations.

Bosley said this is a good way to use bikes that would have otherwise been scrapped.

The one issue  with the second phase is a lack of a place to house all of the bikes. A structure is being planned, but there is no finalized date for when it will be available.

The structure will account for $3,000 of the program’s $4,200 budget according to  Associate Provost for Student Affairs Marica Kiessling.

The original plans included a concrete pad and fence with a roof, but the plans have since been improved upon.

Bosley said he is pushing for earlier than the spring but wants to remain realistic that it may not be a possiblility. For students who are interested in participating, there will not be a cost, but some parts may have to be paid for.

Bosley said they have plenty of tools, spare parts and tires, but if some bikes need a more specialized part students would need to pay for that.

Bosley said, the point of the program is not for instructors to fix the bikes for students but to teach students how to do it themselves and leave them with the skill for the future.

The program will also offer a chance for student employment.

“I’m thrilled,” Kiessling said, “about this opportunity for students.”