By Betsy Carreno
Beginning this semester, Dominican will be offering the U-Pass for students to take part in. Students are allowed to pick up their pass if they decided to opt for it in early January.
During the spring 2023 semester, Christine Wilson, a seminar professor, and her students proposed a commuter student transportation program.
The purpose of the program was to provide commuter students reliable rides to campus as well as reduce the pollution that is produced.
When the program was presented at the SI (Scholarship & Ideas) Expo on April 12, 2023, the main result was the reintegration of the U-Pass as the commuter student transportation pool idea was left on hold.
Junior Joanna Rodriguez enrolled in Wilson’s LAS course, The Self in Transition: The Examined Life, last semester and pitched the U-Pass idea.
“What inspired me to take the initiative to pitch the idea of a U-Pass was being a commuter student,” said Rodriguez. “I knew [the] U-Pass was a simple yet effective idea that Dominican could implement in the future.”
Rodriguez said she thinks commuter students should consider sharing rides with friends to decrease pollution.
I personally do not need the U-Pass because I live 5-10 minutes away from the campus,” she said. However, my friends and I ride share all the time. It is not only fun because you are with your friends, but [it’s] also a tiny adjustment we make in our everyday lives that ends up making a huge difference in the environment.”
SGA President Christian Kalekas has led the U-Pass implementation.
“All the staff have shown their continued support during the beginning stages and provided input throughout,” he said. “They have made our job at SGA easy, and we look forward to working with them on future projects.”
As for the process of working on the U-Pass, Kalekas stated that the steps were centered around the student population and logistics.
“Our first steps in this project were gauging interest for the U-Pass in the student population while finding out the overall logistics and financial support needed for the project,” he said. “With over 100 students signed up for the U-Pass, we are extremely excited about this opportunity and proud to be a part of its implementation.”
When asked about to the future of the originally proposed commuter student transportation pool program, Kalekas says that there were a few other initiatives proposed during the meetings that SGA will consider.
“This includes a carpool system for commuter students which promotes less pollution while freeing up more parking spaces on campus,” Kalekas explained. “There are other ideas we are looking into and we are always looking for new initiatives to pursue.”
1 Trackback / Pingback
Comments are closed.