Full Gold parking lot at USF St. Petersburg campus.
Courtesy of Audrey Ward | The Crow’s Nest
By Audrey Ward
Two years into the consolidation of the three campuses, the University of South Florida struggles to address the cross-campus transportation problem.
Unfortunately, rather than finding a full menu of courses on any one campus, students find they have to travel to other campuses to get all the classes needed to graduate.
According to Crystal Do, a senior management major at USF St. Petersburg, the problem is that there’s no simple transportation system to get students back and forth –– USF does not offer shuttles or buses to and from different campuses and many students don’t have cars.
Courtesy of Audrey Ward | The Crow’s Nest
Even though USF Tampa has the Bull Runner Transit System to help students get from one part of the campus to another, it isn’t of much help when it comes to cross-campus traveling.
“I have classes that end right when rush hour starts in Tampa, so it usually results in me staying back until it starts to die down. Carpooling is another option for me to reduce my commute too,” Do said.
Taylor Sherman, a sophomore pre-law political science major at USF St. Petersburg suggested the university should use some of its funds for student transportation, as she also has to make the stressful back and forth commute for classes at the Tampa campus.
Courtesy of Audrey Ward | The Crow’s Nest
“Now that the university is committed to OneUSF, intercampus busing could be an important step in unifying all three campuses,” Herman said. “St. Petersburg has so much to offer, and I’d love to see Tampa and Sarasota-Manatee students experience what’s on the other side of the bay.”
USF St. Petersburg Student Governor Sean Schrader, gave a more logistical approach to this issue.
Courtesy of Audrey Ward | The Crow’s Nest
“I believe the first step is identifying what events students want to travel to on different campuses. Once that is determined, a pilot-based approach could be taken to slowly roll out a bus system that could transport students to these events and see how many students participate in the cross-campus transportation system,” Schrader said.
Schrader also said that adopting a university-sponsored transportation system could help reduce the collective travel times that multiple students experience when traveling across campuses.
“Additionally, I think that one bus and fewer cars on the road could greatly benefit our environment,” Schrader said.
The Bull Runner, which currently only serves USF Tampa, could be expanded to connect all campuses, according to Schrader. While student fees are the primary funding source, many local businesses and organizations sponsor the transportation system’s mission.
USF took the initiative to support a more sustainable environment by debuting its first zero-emission electric bus in the Bull Runner fleet. A new Proterra 40-foot Catalyst E2 bus made its debut on Thursday, April 22, 2021. This would reduce cars on the road and emissions overall.
Do said that another solution would be to offer courses across each campus that are originally based in one campus in an online or hybrid mode, or offering specific rideshare options for students.
