Students To Receive MBTA Discounts

Undergraduates will soon join the ranks of students at Harvard’s graduate schools who can ride the bus and subway at an 11 percent discounted fare.

The College announced before winter break that undergraduates can now purchase discounted MBTA semester passes.

The program will be run through the Student Affairs Office of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) for a trial semester.

GSAS offered to include undergraduates in its program after receiving a request from Associate Dean of the College David P. Illingworth ’71.

“David asked me if we could help him out, given that there are probably not huge numbers of undergraduates interested in the program,” said Garth O. McCavana, associate dean for student affairs at GSAS.

“Essentially, we are doing the College a favor,” McCavana added. “If the numbers are small, then we can lend a hand. No money is transferred from GSAS to the College.”

Illingworth investigated piggybacking onto GSAS’ semester pass program after several students brought the College’s lack of such a program to his attention in early December.

“We received complaints from a number of different areas, and were made aware by students that undergraduates would benefit from this program,” said Thomas A. Dingman ’67, associate dean of the College.

But Illingworth estimates only 15 to 20 students will purchase the pass because discounted passes work on a semester basis.

A four-month bus pass ordinarily costs $100, and with the discount costs $89. A four-month subway pass ordinarily costs $140, and with the discount costs $124.60.

For the pass to be cost-effective students must take at least 31 bus or subway trips a month.

“It only helps students who are commuting, of which there are very few in the College, or students who do an extensive amount of community service,” Illingworth said.

Students involved in Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) programs said the discount will lessen the financial burden of transportation on their volunteers next semester.

“I’m really impressed by how quickly Kimberley S. Mak ’05, who runs the PBHA tutoring program Best Buddies. “It will grant my volunteers a lot more opportunities—we can organize trips to places other than Cambridge and use the subway more often.”

Illingworth said the College decided to go through GSAS partially because it will save the College the work of executing their own program.

GSAS requires that all students request and pay for their semester pass by Jan. 8 so the school can order the exact quantity.

“We don’t have to worry about ordering the wrong number of passes since we only order the number that students have requested and paid for in advance,” said Phoebe McKinnell, an administrative assistant in the Student Affairs Office.

McKinnell said that as of Friday the GSAS Student Affairs Office had not received any requests for discounted passes from undergraduates.

Notices about the discount were sent out to the Houses and posted in House offices before break.

Assistant to the Masters of Winthrop House Karen Reiber sent the notice to students but said that she has not received any requests for discounted passes.

Some worry that many students, returning late to campus because of reading period, will miss the Jan. 8 deadline.

“I’m not surprised that we haven’t had any requests yet—students really haven’t been here since the notice about the passes came out, since it was right at the beginning of the holidays,” said Mather House Assistant to the Masters Jackie Wheeler. “They’re only coming back to campus the week of the deadline.”

Despite the expectation of low numbers, Illingworth said he is interested to see how the program evolves.

“It may surprise us,” he said. “If 300 to 400 College students take advantage of the discount, we’ll have to establish our own office and run the program through University Hall.”

—Staff writer Lauren A.E. Schuker can be reached at schuker@fas.harvard.edu.