By Lynn Post |Staff Writer|
As if the cost of tuition wasn’t enough, students who live in the High Desert are getting the short end of the stick due to lack of public transportation options.
On average students spend $100 a week, or more, on gas to attend classes at CSUSB.
Student Mathew Ford said, “I stay down here during the week because its too expensive to drive back and forth.”
Commuter services needs to address the issue and increase communication to students about their services.
The only option they have other than driving (or perhaps zip lining) is the Ride Share program also known as the van pool.
Availability to students is limited unless they’re one of the lucky few whose schedule’s fit with the current van pool’s hours of operation.
The van pool leaves Victorville at 7:30 a.m. and heads back from CSUSB at 4:30 p.m.
So if you have a later class you may end up hitchhiking home.
Priority seating goes to campus employees and any seats left may be filled on a first-come first-serve basis.
Enterprise runs the service at a cost of $100 a quarter.
According to CSUSB’s Institutional Research Department, roughly 1,200 students live up the hill.
That’s 9.5 percent of our student population, and that figure does not include the students who originate from that area and have since moved on campus.
Student Celina Calderon had this to say in regards to the van pool, “That kind of resource would be beneficial to [me].”
Calderon currently stays near campus with friends throughout the quarter to avoid the high costs of commuting from her home up the hill.
Joey Weatherbie is a student with a job obligation in the High Desert.
He said, “I work for the In N Out in Hesperia […] I love working there.”
Weatherbie only works on the weekends because the cost of driving from his home on campus is too high to be worthwhile.
There are a lack of universities in the High Desert and the ones that are available only offer a handful of degrees so options are extremely limited.
Each of these campuses are satellite campuses all connected with colleges located down the hill; Brandman University, Azusa Pacific University, and the University of La Verne.
Generally, these campuses offer adult education courses and a limited number of degree options, leaving someone wanting to obtain an English degree, like yours truly, forced down the hill.
Therefore, CSUSB is the closest full service campus for High Desert residences.
Without an increase in Financial Aid, loan payments, or pay many student take too much of a loss in terms of commuting costs.
This can create more stress to those who are already taking on the stress of college classes, jobs, families, etc.
Transportation worries must be alleviated.
More options of public transportation for long distance commuting students is a no brainer.
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