The Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities shuttle bus that transports students between local campuses will stop running at the end of spring semester because of declining student enrollment in the ACTC program and the cost of gas.
More than 500 St. Thomas students are enrolled in the ACTC program, allowing them to take classes at other participating colleges that are not available at St. Thomas. But in recent years, ACTC enrollment has been dropping and gas prices have risen, making ACTC schools rethink the bus service, according to Josh Hengemuhle, program director of Off-Campus Student Services.
“(The) cost of sustaining (the shuttle) was just too high on a per-student basis,” Hengemuhle said.
As each ACTC school has grown in size, more courses are offered on campus, creating less of a need to go elsewhere. These additional courses mean fewer students use the shuttle.
Some students, however, are concerned about finding transportation to the other schools.
Freshman Chikeng Lee, who uses the bus to see his sister at St. Kate’s, said he is now discouraged from considering ACTC classes as an option for his education.
“It’s pretty sad the bus is shutting down,” Lee said. “It will be really inconvenient now because I don’t drive … So I’ll have to find another way.”
But Hengemuhle said he is confident that students will continue to cross-enroll in the future. St. Thomas recently conducted a survey for cross-enrolled students and found 45 percent of students use an alternate form of transportation.
“I would assume if a student is really passionate about a certain course, they will find a way to get there without the shuttle service,” Hengemuhle said.
According to Hengemuhle, other transportation options may be more convenient.
“There’s a bus that runs between here and St. Kate’s every five minutes … you can get to Hamline in about 10 minutes,” Hengemuhle said. “It is almost more convenient to use the metro system than the ACTC shuttle, from a frequency standpoint.”
Junior Brittany Gare said the lack of an ACTC bus wouldn’t have stopped her from taking classes off campus.
“I would have found some way to get to St. Kate’s for my American Sign Language class if the ACTC bus was not available to me because I really love the language,” Gare said. “But the ACTC bus just makes everything more convenient. This will affect a lot of other people that use it regularly.”
Starting fall semester St. Thomas will begin promoting the other transportation options to students during welcome week, publicizing options such as the Metro Transit bus system, NiceRide and the Green Line due to the shuttle’s discontinuation.
Whitney Oachs can be reached at oach5325@stthomas.edu.