Gow is a graduate student in Asian American studies.
By Will Gow
Public transportation is one of society’s great
democratizing forces. It’s a system of conveyance, used by
people from all strata of society, that is both cost-effective and
environmentally sound. For the last two years, because of a program
called BruinGo! which allows students and faculty to ride the Big
Blue Bus for free, Bruins of all shapes and sizes have been
encouraged to ride the bus to school.
But the status of the program has recently come into doubt as
the university questions whether or not it wants to pay for
BruinGo! next year. And ironically, even as it quibbles over
BruinGo!’s operating budget, it begins construction of a new
parking facility with 1,500 parking spaces that will cost the
university between $22,000 to $33,000 per space. This means the
entire project will cost from $33 million to $50 million.
Compare this to the BruinGo! program, which costs about $1
million a year. For the price the university is paying to build a
new parking lot, they could fund the BruinGo! program for another
33 to 50 years.
The whole setup seems strangely nonsensical: build more parking
spaces that will encourage more people to drive to school, while
cutting the BruinGo! program that will encourage less people to use
the bus.
Besides the university, which will take in more money in parking
fees, who exactly benefits from a set-up like this? Certainly not
the people in the surrounding community who have to deal with 1,500
more cars worth of pollution. Certainly not the students who have
to pay another $20 a month to ride the bus. Certainly not the
drivers who further isolate themselves from the rest of world by
spending their time driving to school alone.
Should UCLA decide to dismantle BruinGo!, it would be sending a
not-so-subtle message about the type ““ dare I say, class
““ of students it values. Driving is a luxury that many
students can’t afford, and cutting the BruinGo! program while
moving forward with the new parking facility would be a slap in the
face to all of the students who can’t afford to drive. Maybe
Johnny from Orange County will think it’s great that he can
drive his new BMW to school. But I assure you when some other
students have $20 less to spend on groceries each month, they will
not be equally as happy.
While the BruinGo! program benefits all UCLA students by
decreasing both the levels of pollution and congestion in the areas
surrounding the university, 1,500 new parking spaces benefit only
the university. This obsession with money even at the expense of
the students’ well-being is part of a disturbing trend
sweeping America’s campuses. Maintaining the BruinGo! program
would be a message that the university does care about the concerns
of all its students, regardless of their economic background.
Dismantling it would only be another indication that while the
university may say it’s interested in the needs of all its
students, in reality it’s more concerned with increasing
revenue than providing adequate services for all.