A student who wishes to forsake the comforts of campus and venture far into the city must first traverse the giant city blocks to the Bookstore if they want this to be a cost-effective undertaking.
Once there, the weary wanderer must ascend to the second floor and seek out the machine lurking in the corner, which will swallow $6.50 of the victim's change before spitting out five metallic tokens.
The student now desperately clutches the tiny pieces of bronze and white metal, for fear of aggression by an envious passerby. After trudging to the closest SEPTA station at 36th or 40th Street, the wayfarer descends deep underground into the belly of the beast and is forced to part with the Precious in order to obtain safe passage.
Oh, the horror.
The minor hassle of obtaining a token is actually a major obstacle to students going off campus. Unfortunately, this inertia undermines our University's mission of local engagement.
Sure, we have plenty of tutoring, rebuilding and other community-service programs to occasionally coax students to go off campus. But Philly shouldn't be like the relatives we see only at Christmas and Easter. Or in this case, Restaurant Week and First Fridays.
If Penn wants us to consistently engage locally, we need to be able to get into the city easily.
How about giving every student a transit pass? A pass would remove two main deterrents - the inconvenience and expense of buying tokens for each trip. A student who is handed an all-access bus and metro pass is likely to use it. Even the suburbanites terrified of public transportation would give it a try.
The city pass that SEPTA currently offers to Penn and Temple students costs $280.80 per semester. According to Barbara Lea-Kruger, Penn's director of communications at Business Services, this is a discount of $40 from the normal SEPTA rate.
However, that's still way too steep a price for students who are not dependent on the city for any of their needs.
"That's why I don't have one," said Wharton freshman Kalyani Ravi, who had discussed purchasing the pass with her parents before coming to Penn. Even though a transit pass "would be fantastic," Ravi doubts she will go into the city often enough to justify the high cost.
Small wonder that only 339 students opted to buy the PennPass for the spring 2007 semester.
We can find a better model.
Student transit pass schemes have already succeeded in other cities. The University of Colorado at Boulder has had a transit pass program since the early 90s.
CU was persuaded to enter negotiations with the local transit authority after environmentally concerned students rebelled against plans to build additional parking garages. A student referendum overwhelmingly approved an additional $10 student fee to help fund the program, and every CU student received a pass.
According to a report called "Finding a New Way: Campus Transportation for the Twenty-First Century," the number of bus trips taken by students multiplied fivefold over the next six years - from 300,000 to 1.5 million trips annually.
If Penn students balk at the idea of a fee hike, Penn could adopt the University of Washington's strategy of an optional pass.
All students are issued a transit pass at registration, but anyone can return it with a written request for a refund. Since this is too much trouble for most, student participation in UW's optional program reached a high of 86 percent in 2001.
Financing such a program at Penn will be tricky. Lea-Kruger cited SEPTA's current financial straits as an obstacle to negotiating a better deal.
But perhaps Penn can use this fact to our advantage.
SEPTA can clearly use the cash flow from the mass sale of student passes. Students are usually still snoring during the morning rush hour so we're more likely to fill the empty seats during off-peak hours than create a new burden on the system.
Our presence in the metro and on the bus would strengthen the overall transportation system by giving SEPTA a better image. Plus, all parties concerned would be contributing to a greener campus and city.
With the purchase of the postal lands, Penn committed itself to connecting the campus with the city. A transit pass is a relatively simple way to honor that commitment.
Rina Thomas is a senior in the Huntsman Program from New Orleans. Her e-mail address is thomas@dailypennsylvanian.com. The Gospel According to Thomas appears on Thursdays.
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