As the school year winds down, Columbia city leaders remain fixated on improving the transit system before another academic year begins in the fall.
Students are actively helping out as well, such as a group of Crosby Masters of Business Administration students last Thursday.
Three MBA student candidates presented possible solutions to the city’s transit woes at the Public Transportation Advisory Commission’s meeting last Thursday.
The students are all members of Trulaske Consulting Association, a business college consulting club, and have been working on their project since last December.
They began the project after Carlos Alvarado, a member of the Public Transportation Advisory Commission and the Transit System Task Force, told them about the opportunity, encouraged them to take on the project and guided them through an analysis of Columbia’s transit situation. Alvarado has an MBA from Columbia University and has strong ties to the Columbia business community.
Graduate student Michael Schult was one of the presenters and said the group outlined seven or eight possible solutions to increase revenue or decrease costs, all in an effort to combat the city’s $1.4 million transit deficit from last year.
One of the possible solutions proposed was a student fee anywhere between $25 and $100. Schult said a yearly $50 student fee would raise $1.6 million on its own.
A $50 student fee would still be less than the current student fees at several other Midwest college communities. City leaders visited Ames, Iowa, Lawrence, Kan., and Champaign, Ill., earlier this year for ideas on to have a better student-centric transit system. All three charge a student fee between $50 and $87 a semester.
Schult said the group didn’t look into the obstacles to implementing a student fee.
“We just looked at it from a business perspective, not necessarily from a political implications perspective,” Schult said.
Another issue plaguing the transit system is the massive amounts of money lost to the Black and Gold Route. The route is primarily used by students to get from campus to student apartment complexes on the south side of town.
“The city has to figure out some way to not have those routes run them dry,” Schult said.
Currently, the route is paid for by the apartment complexes who negotiate contracts with the city.
Schult said the city could look at re-negotiating with the complexes or possibly even cutting off the routes.
He also said he felt the commission received their proposal well despite the many competing views among its members.
“I think they understood that we were working on a student project and trying to help them out and they appreciated the work we did,” Schult said.
The group will be presenting their ideas to the Tiger Transit Movement at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the MU Student Center.
As the discussion over improving transit continues, council members will continue to gain public input by holding Community Conversations about Transit. Fourth Ward councilman Daryl Dudley will host a conversation on April 26 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at The ARC.
Fifth Ward councilwoman Helen Anthony will host hers from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. May 1 at Alive in Christ Lutheran Church.
First Ward councilman Fred Schmidt and Sixth Ward councilwoman Barbara Hoppe have each already hosted a conversation.
