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Identifying Current Problems
Freshmen at Lewis & Clark are not allowed cars on campus, meaning they must use alternate forms of transportation to get around. This includes carpooling, Uber/Lyfts, TriMet, and the Lewis & Clark Shuttle (Otterbus).
All students come from different backgrounds. Some may have a lot of previous experience with public transportation, while others have none.
Currently, the only ways that new students can learn about these methods of transportation are through the website or their New Student Peer Mentor (NSPM). NSPMs take students on one off-campus trip utilizing public transportation. However, the information students get on these trips varies, and not all students are able to attend.
Melanie McManamon, First-Year Experience Coordinator, mentioned that new students have a fear of making mistakes and doing things wrong. More education can help ease this fear and allow students to get where they need to go with less fear and in a more sustainable way.
New Student Orientation
To try to help with this problem, we have standardized the information New Student Peer Mentors share with students, which will now include:
What transportation options are available to Lewis & Clark students
How to get a Hop card
How to use transportation apps
Where the Otterbus stops and what to find at each stop
When to pull the cord for certain stops
Information about the bike Co-op
To distribute this information, we plan to include transportation pamphlets in orientation care packages. Additionally, we will aim to offer a variety of public transportation-focused off-campus experiences as part of orientation.
Lewis & Clark New Student Peer Mentors and President Robin Holmes-Sullivan at New Student Orientation
Outcomes
By standardizing New Student Orientation, we can provide Lewis & Clark students with an informative introduction to the various modes of transportation around campus to encourage greater first-year use.
We believe that with more students utilizing these forms of transportation, we will see an increase in:
Use of eco-friendly transportation by Lewis & Clark students
First-year students gaining more freedom
Better first-year experiences with less transportation-based stress
Data concerning the potential positive effect of New Student Orientation education can be found in the Appendix, under Lewis & Clark Community Data.
Shown above is a mock-up of a potential pamphlet to distribute around campus, especially to new students.
Not only are current transportation resources underdeveloped, but students are also unaware of their options. Given this, we plan to employ a variety of methods in order to disseminate information regarding the options available to students. Our methods are largely divided into two categories: physical and digital media. Shown above are examples of the posters that we plan to hang up around campus, as well as a brochure that we plan to hand out to new students. On the digital side of things, we plan to publish Instagram videos as an accessible way of visually demonstrating how to use public transit.
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