Some students are having problems with the OW campus shuttle bus service. The buses are not consistently on time which can make students late for classes. A Catalyst reporter had difficulty getting home on Tuesday and Thursday nights for three weeks because there was no service after 7:30 p.m.
Students who attend late classes must find a way to go home. Some are forced to walk back to the train station because they can’t afford to pay for an Uber or they don’t have a person to pick them up. Others must wait longer until someone can take them home.
This semester, Old Westbury changed the schedule of class periods for the first time in nine years. A Catalyst reporter who rides the bus regularly noticed that in the mornings, the bus has delays of 5 to 15 minutes.
Marcus Ennette is a Media and Communications student who uses the morning and evening shuttle buses to get to school and back home. He has noticed some improvement. “The service has improved a lot from when I first came to school. Sometimes, it was fifteen minutes late or the schedule was wrong,” he said. His concern is that the Transloc application he uses to track arrival and departure times is not very accurate which causes problems.
Another Media and Communications major, Ethan Ford, said he’s heard of students missing classes because the bus never showed up. He has also had negative experiences. “One day, me and my friend were trying to go home, and I guess the guy showed up earlier than he was supposed to and didn’t come on time. We waited out there for an hour.” Ford continued, “I know a lot of times it happens that the bus was supposed to leave in a couple of minutes, and it would just leave early and wouldn’t wait for the time it’s supposed to wait for.”
One of the shuttle bus drivers told the Catalyst that, “when we get off to go to the mall, it should not be an issue, but they [SUNY Old Westbury] don’t want us to stop there during the day, and it’s a concern for the students.” The driver explained that students end up being late. “The last schedule was good,” he said, “but the new one, we’re hitting a lot of lights, so he [the director] should rethink the schedules.”
Why is the new course schedule and shuttle bus schedule making it difficult for students to arrive and leave on time? The Catalyst attempted to contact the Transportation Office by phone, leaving messages for a week without a response.
Michael Kinane, the Vice President of Communications & University Relations at SUNY Old Westbury, responded to the Catalyst’s questions about the shuttle bus. He explained that the Facilities Director, John Fabbricante, has been gathering information from students and learning about their experiences with the goal of creating an improved plan for the bus schedule.
Kinane said, “We are trying to resolve the issue with the resources we have because the last thing we want is to increase transportation fees.” According to the college website, full-time students pay a transportation fee of $60 every semester. Part-time students pay $30.
The administration is aware that the new course schedule is creating problems for the shuttle bus which can prevent students from being on time. The facilities director, John Fabbricante, and his team are trying their best to find a solution with the resources they have in hand to make sure that the shuttle buses can be on time morning, evening, and night. When the Catalyst checked on March 1, the shuttle bus schedule read: “Shuttle bus schedule for Spring 2024 is BEING REVISED” in big red letters at the top of the webpage.
