Cristy Rodriguez wakes up most mornings in her childhood home in Compton with a 90-minute roundtrip commute in her car ahead of her.
Commuting five days a week, Rodriguez, a junior studying creative writing, spends a lot of money on her transportation between the high cost of gas and a $500 dollar parking pass per semester. Still, one of her biggest difficulties comes from the time lost driving rather than working on school assignments.
“[Gas costs] end up totaling around $120 per month, so if I could pay $120 for six months [with the UPass], I’d rather just take the metro which gives me more time to focus on homework and other stuff, too,” Rodriguez said.
Without the option for undergraduate student Rodriguez to purchase the UPass, driving to campus makes the most economic sense.
While graduate students are able to purchase the Metro UPass for a flat rate of $120.75 for a six-month period, undergraduate commuters are left with no comparable solutions. With single rides costing $1.75 and the reduced fare college pass — a program separate from UPass — costing $43 per month, undergraduate students are being charged more than double their graduate counterparts.
As an estimated 10 percent of the total undergraduate population faces something similar to Rodriguez, commuter students have limited options. Many drive, while some take the Metro or bus. Still, with those options come other expensive fees commuter students are trying to avoid by living far from campus.
The UPass program is relatively new to USC. Graduate Student Government (GSG) implemented the program in 2015, and the University Department of Transportation began managing it this past semester. Rhiann Joshua, the Director of Campus Affairs for (GSG), managed the UPass program for a short period of time until this past August.
Joshua said she isn’t sure why undergraduates lack a comparable option, given how popular it is for graduate students.
“Everyone needs help with transportation, especially if they’re maybe a transfer student or commuter student or not living on campus,” she said. “I see no reason as to why they shouldn’t have access to this program.”
When asked to comment by Annenberg Media, USC’s Associate Director of Transportation Shawn Chavira did not have an explanation for why the school didn’t offer the UPass program to undergraduates and could not provide detailed information about common forms of transportation for commuter students.
The UPass program itself is subsidized by the graduate student “programming fee.” Programming fees are included in the tuition of all students who attend six or more units at USC — both graduate and undergraduate.
According to USG senator Ben Rosenthal, the previous Assistant Director of the Professional and Academic Fund in USG, the programming fee for undergraduates is $64 per semester. That fee — which is separate from the graduate student programming fee — goes towards USG’s $2 million budget to help pay for a variety of programs and events.
With the high cost of transportation in Los Angeles, some USG senators are looking for ways to aid all undergraduate students. While the “Free Lyft” program hours have been expanded and some senators are working on strengthening the USC shuttle services, the UPass program is not at the forefront of many senators’ minds.
Rosenthal said one factor to consider is that many transit subsidies at USC were created not with student commuters in mind, but with the idea that students could use them to better explore the L.A.-area.
“We wanted to make it easier for non-commuter students to access the rest of LA,” he said. “Right now if you want to travel to Santa Monica, if you want to travel to Hollywood, [if] you want to travel to a lot of places that are only a few miles from USC, but also are susceptible to traffic and high Uber costs, it’s difficult to get out.”
A One-Way ride for $1.75 may be manageable for students who wish to explore on occasion. However, students who regularly commute may spend as much as $70 per month if they use the metro twice a day, five days a week.
Sunday Smith, a senior studying film production, transferred to USC from Santa Monica College and commutes from Encino, approximately 24 miles from campus. With her commute taking anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half, she does not think the university has adequately addressed the difficulties she faces.
“I definitely don’t think USC has any idea who the commuter students are,” said Smith. “I don’t even know if they have tried to figure that out.”
Although she drives because public transportation is limited from Encino, Smith voiced frustration with the fact that an affordable program was not available to other undergraduate students. She feels that no noticeable efforts have been made to educate commuter students about their options.
While junior journalism student Olivia De Witt both drives and takes the metro to campus, she was unaware of a monthly student metro pass. Since moving to Hollywood in August, she has been paying $100 a month for the standard monthly metro pass.
Students interviewed do not think their professors, academic advisors, or peers are aware that they commute and in turn, are not informed on the issues they face both academically and in regard to their commute. Without outreach on resources, many commuter students are unaware of the discounts that are currently available, like the monthly student metro pass, and ones that could be possible with adequate lobbying and support from USG, such as UPass.
The USC administration has adequate resources to gather information on both the number of students that commute to campus as well as the issues they face on a daily basis, ranging from the high cost of gas, inadequate education on the metro’s programs, long commutes, and more. Even with the resources available, the USC administration has failed to communicate and engage with commuter students in an effective way, leaving many of these students without adequate information and support.
“I don’t think [the university] is necessarily aware of how many students do use the Metro or any type of public transportation,” said De Witt. “I’d like to be more aware of [those] options.”