Commuting to Point Park University, or any school for that matter, can bring a lot of extra challenges and difficulties for students, whether it is working out a travel plan, planning ahead to make it to class on time or even finding the time to meet other students or join school activities.
Desmond McCoy, director of student services, shares what Point Park has to offer to help commuter students with some of these challenges.
Point Park has a program called the U-Pass Program. Partnered with Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT), fare-free rides are offered to full-time undergraduate students enrolled in on-ground classes.
According to McCoy, all full-time students are eligible for the program, and it is done automatically through course registration. Students just need to have the Ready2Ride app downloaded and activated through their PPU email prior to activating the U-Pass. The bus, “T” and incline are accessible with the pass, and it is only eligible through the academic year.
“[U-Pass begins] essentially right before classes start in August,” McCoy said, “and then it will end at the end of the academic year at the end of the semester, of course still on and eligible during breaks.”
Additionally, the U-Pass is paid for via the student’s university fee.
“Hence why you have to be full time status, because full time students pay university fees,” McCoy said. There are currently 18,078 students who have signed up for the U-Pass, according to McCoy.
Point Park also offers parking leases through Station Square parking at a discounted rate. “Not only for commuters, but residential students too,” McCoy said.
McCoy tracks down other parking garage information as well, writes letters for students applying for parking leases or apartment spaces and said he can help find the best apps for timing and schedules for public transit.
Ben Victor, multimedia major and commuter student at PPU from Uniontown Pennsylvania, is a part-time sophomore who drives to school for two days a week when he has classes.
Victor does not have a parking lease, and estimates it costs him anywhere from $4,200 to $5,100 per year for gas and parking to drive to school.
“The biggest difficulty I find, is the cost to commute.” Victor stated, “It costs $20 to park in Third Avenue garage from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.”
Gas adds to his cost as well. “Since I’m driving three hours round trip two days per week, it costs $100 a week to fill up with gas because I drive a sports car that takes premium gas.”
Victor says he must arrive at campus an hour early before his classes start, to ensure that he can get a parking space. “If I don’t get to campus by 8:30 a.m., Wood-Allies Garage and Third Avenue Garage are both full and I have to park far away in the expensive garage,” he said.
For Erika Tyler, a broadcasting major and first-year student from Verona, Pa., however, arriving at school on time is her biggest challenge. She is a full-time commuter student who uses the U-pass program to ride the P1 bus line.
“The buses are always cancelled,” Tyler said, “so they don’t come until like 40 minutes later. Or they are always very crowded, so they are like ‘No we can’t pick any more people up.’”
Public transit is a whole separate issue, but some reasons it can be unreliable in the U.S. include aging infrastructure and lack of investment, dominance of automobiles, growing cities and fragmented systems, according to Oregon Passenger Rail.
Hayden Waschak, digital journalism major sophomore from Ambridge, Pa., is a student with a disability who also uses the U-Pass program and relies 100% on public transit to go anywhere.
“I’m someone who has a positive experience using public transit,” Waschak said. “I know a lot of people really hate it, [but] I am someone who has to use it anyway because I am disabled and unable to drive.”
All three students agreed commuting makes it difficult to meet and connect with peers on campus.
“I definitely do find it hard,” Victor said. “Since I have an hour and a half drive ahead of me, as soon as I’m done with class at 4:10 [p.m.] I go right to my car and head home and get home around 6:00, [p.m.]” Victor said.
Tyler said she finds it hard to meet students and has a difficult time joining school activities.
“I’m a part of the radio station, but that was very hard to get into because I couldn’t make it to any of the training sessions or any of the meetings because they were so late,” Tyler said. “I tried to get into U-View but couldn’t because of transportation, again.”
McCoy said the university is in the process of launching a program called “Co-Experiences.”
He said it is an app that students will be able to download and connect with each other. McCoy said it is AI generated, and that PPU will feed in some of the on-campus programs in addition to some off-campus programs.
McCoy said if a student attends a program, it will connect that student with other people who attend similar programs. It is currently in the process of being made, and McCoy does not have an estimate of when it will be done.
“We’ve launched it for faculty and staff members, but the next phase will be students,” McCoy said.
