Students' imagination is now a reality
St. Michael's students will soon ride bus for free

Amdework Assefa | staff writer

St. Michael's students wait for the bus. Photo courtesy of Larry Frisoli

aassefa2@smcvt.edu

The St. Michael’s Student Association (S.A.) and Chris Cole, general manager of the Chittenden County Transportation Authority (CCTA) reached an agreement on Oct. 16 which will allow St. Michael’s students unlimited access to bus transportation during the week, as well as an extended service plan on the weekends, starting Nov. 2.

This idea has been floating around since the spring semester of last year and now the bus contract has been officially signed and the service will be available for all St. Michael’s students.

Financing the free ride

Marilyn Cormier, director of government and community relations at St. Michael’s, and vice president for student affairs and dean of students Mike Samara also played a big role in making the busing a reality, especially on the financial side of things, says S.A. vice president Mallory Wood.

“Students now have free access to all the local CCTA buses except the commuter buses that serve Middlebury, Saint Albans, and Montpelier,” Cole says.

Students can ride to Shelburne, South Burlington, Essex, Williston, and Burlington, he says.

There are two components to this contract, one is the extended service on Friday and Saturday nights. There will be two additional departures from Burlington added on Friday nights at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., and four additional trips on Saturday nights at 8:30, 9:30, 10:30 and 11:30 p.m.

S.A. vice president Mallory Wood. Photo courtesy of Larry Frisoli

The second component is unlimited access to the entire bus system, Cole says. May 10 is when the extended service will stop, and it will begin again on August 24. St. Michael’s wanted to make it an annual deal, he says.

“For the remainder of this school year St. Michael’s College will pay $3,340. 21 which is 25 percent less than what the school would have had to pay,” Cole says.

For next year the price would be approximately $4,500 because the service is starting in August, he says.

The biodiesel the CCTA buses use will help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; the more students that use public transportation instead of cars the less carbon output we are putting as a region, says Cole.

UVM alone had over 200,000 students ride CCTA buses last year, and Champlain College had over 60,000 riders. It will be interesting to see where St. Michael’s comes in, he says.

“The major complaint that we used to get was, ‘I want to have a late dinner in downtown or I am 21 and I would like to go the bar and not worry about driving back,’ so this extended service was the main piece of the puzzle we have been waiting on,”  Wood says.

“We put in $1500 from the S.A. account and the rest from Residential Life, and Mike Samara are taking off the rest for this year and for next year the cost of this program will be on the college's budget. Jack Neuhauser is very supportive of this program,” she says.

Getting the wheels rolling

Burlington residents use the public transportation. Photo courtesy of Larry Frisoli

The hardest part of getting this program was starting it up, Wood says.

 “Once the ball got rolling it ran very smoothly,” she says. “Our contacts were there but it was turning this idea that students had into that first contact using the poll we did last year and presenting it to the Board of Trustees,” Wood says.

“I have an internship downtown and it takes me half an hour to get there because traffic is so slow and I have to park blocks away so I don’t pay for parking and gas money. Once Nov. 2 comes, chances are I am going to be on that bus,” Wood says.

On Friday November 2 the S.A. and CCTA will be at Alliot tables promoting this program from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and also from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. by giving out t-shirts, buttons and stickers, Wood says.

Alex Melillo is a first-year who uses the bus three times a week.

“I work at Tic-Tac Jewelers and it is a pain to look for quarters,” Melillo says. “This new program definitely changes how much money I save because I used to use $5 a week to get to my work.”

Jason Yim is another first-year who uses the public transportation in order to get to his class. In the cultural anthropology class we have travel to Burlington to learn about other cultures and it kind of like an internship, he says.