MBTA Discount Eludes College

Most Boston-area university students can ride the bus and subway at a discounted fare—most students, that is, with the exception of Harvard College students.

Through its Semester Pass program, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) grants an 11 percent discount on fares to students attending participating colleges and universities.

Students must purchase a semester pass, which begin at $100 and climb depending on the travel zone, to receive the discount. Institutions can then choose to subsidize the discount further.

“The semester pass program is entirely free for colleges and universities,” said MBTA spokesperson Lydia M. Rivera. “We are just looking to help out local universities—all they have to do to get the discount is call.”

But though seven of Harvard’s graduate schools have made that call, College administrators have apparently not yet picked up the phone.

“We have been trying to get Harvard College to be part of the semester pass program for decades,” Rivera said. “It wouldn’t cost them a penny to join, but representatives say that not enough students leave campus to make joining worthwhile.”

At Harvard, the Law School, the Kennedy School of Government, the Divinity School, the Design School, the Education School, the School of Public Health and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) all subscribe to the program.

Boston-wide, approximately 50 colleges participate, including Boston University, Boston College and U-Mass, Rivera said.

Several College administrators contacted yesterday were unclear about who in the College would be responsible for making the MBTA discount available to Harvard undergraduates.

But students criticized the absence of a discount, saying it would benefit off-campus students as well as on-campus students involved in the larger community.

According to off-campus students, the discount would decrease the traveling costs accumulated by commuting from towns like Allston and Somerville, which have running bus and subway lines.

“I normally ride my bike to my classes, but I take the bus when it rains,” said Brendon T. DeMay ’03, who lives in Allston. “I’d save money if I had a discounted bus pass.”

Meredith E. James ’04, who lives in an apartment within walking distance from campus, agreed.

“I can just walk to class, but I had a friend who lived off-campus in Allston last year and took the bus regularly. It would have saved him a lot of money if he’d had the discount,” she said.

Active student volunteers also make frequent use of public transportation. Student tutors and mentors at the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA), who make daily trips to public schools all over Boston, said they would laud the College’s participation in the program.

“PBHA programs are already cash-strapped, and we get pretty worried when we have to ask our volunteers to pay for their own subway fare, plus their mentee’s subway fare,” said Kimberely S. Mak ’05, who runs the PBHA tutoring program Best Buddies.

“The fares start to add up—and any discount would help us out tremendously.”

Harvard employees receive a 40 percent discount on transportation fares. Subsidies by Harvard’s Accounts Payable Office makes this high discount possible.

GSAS, which joined the Semester Pass program last year after receiving a multitude of student requests, has discussed the possibility of raising the 11 percent discount through subsidies of its own.

“We want to be good citizens and make transportation more accessible and cheaper for our students,” said Garth O. McCavana, associate dean for student affairs at GSAS.

But if a graduate school within Harvard wants to initiate a subsidy, the other graduate schools must follow suit and agree to the same subsidy—a task that might prove difficult because of Harvard’s decentralized administration.

“We want to subsidize the discount, but it would be absolutely impossible to get all the schools to agree on a number, especially because there is no central student affairs office,” McCavana said.

About 130 students at GSAS are using the semester pass program this fall, according to Rivera.