Universities across the U.S. that are couched in urban locales offer subsidized public transportation dollars to their employees, as a means of both assuring a loyal, timely workforce and reducing the impact of cars on their respective campuses, many of which were not landscaped for, nor presently able to, withstand a great amount of parking needs.
One California school, however, has decided to go another way. The University of Southern California in an email to employees announced it would no longer offer $30 per month to employees who purchased a transit pass, which otherwise cost $100. Alternatively, the university's transportation services office is offering transit users three free parking passes per month to use at the University Park Campus.
Needless to say, this measure is getting pushback and drawing criticism.
"The elimination of the subsidy was carefully considered and compared with other available alternatives," read a statement issued by the university.
USC's rideshare subsidy program, which includes transit users and carpools, has grown to serve about 3,000 staff members, earning it several awards for reducing air pollution from the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Moreover, the university is well-served by public transit, with three stops on the Expo light rail line, DASH and Metro bus service and university-run shuttle service to Union Station.
USC is the largest private employer in the city of Los Angeles, and many of its employees depend on public transportation. Faculty members and students on social media have called for a petition urging the university to reverse the transit pass policy or take the issue to the Faculty Senate for review.
The policy makes USC an outlier among such comparable institutions as UCLA, University of California-Berkeley, Stanford and Harvard, all of which offer employees at least 50% subsidies for transit.
As to how this policy of offering parking passes to people who don’t use or perhaps don’t even own a car was not directly responded to by the university.
