The University of Maryland DOTS increased its shuttle bus student fee by about 16 percent from last academic year to this year.
The increase is partially due to this university’s investments in electric buses, according to Lexie Leong, the Residence Hall Association’s student fees coordinator.
While other mandatory student fees increased slightly, the shuttle bus fee saw the biggest jump from last academic year to this year, Leong, a sophomore computer science major, said in a presentation at a Nov. 11 RHA meeting.
Full-time students were charged $861 in mandatory fees for the fall semester, with the shuttle bus fee accounting for $155.50 of this total. Students will be charged the same amount for the spring semester.
The shuttle bus fee supports Shuttle-UM, NITE Ride and transportation facilities maintenance. The fee was $133.50 per semester last academic year, and $127 per semester the year prior.
[College Park, UMD SGA leaders urge state to add safety measures to Route 1 bike lanes]
The fee is “critical” to ensuring Shuttle-UM’s services, DOTS wrote in a statement to The Diamondback on Monday. Shuttle-UM is funded primarily by the mandatory student transportation fee, according to the statement.
The one-time fee increase supports the operation and maintenance of the current petrol-powered buses, as well as the purchase of new electric shuttle buses, according to Leong.
In 2021, university president Darryll Pines announced his goal of having an all-electric fleet of university vehicles by 2035.
This university previously received a grant of nearly $40 million from the United States Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration in 2023 to purchase electric buses.
[UMD GSG members plan to focus on food insecurity, student fees]
Thirty-five battery electric buses, charging stations and associated infrastructure are expected to operate in 2026, according to the statement from DOTS. The federal grant funding will help replace almost 75 percent of Shuttle-UM’s bus fleet with electric buses, according to a 2023 Maryland Today article.
Part of the shuttle bus fee increase also funds operational and personnel costs, such as salary increases, Leong told The Diamondback. She said the fee increase is reasonable because it supports the hard work the employees do.
The shuttle bus fee adjustment for the next academic year has not been determined yet, Leong said.
RHA vice president Michelle Ameyaw said many of the other fee increases for the academic year are due to cost-of-living adjustments. The junior biology major hopes the fees have a limited impact on students.
“As long as it’s fair and the changes make sense, I think it is what it is,” she said.
