It’s a bitterly cold, wintry morning in the not-so-distant future and you have a term paper due at 9 a.m.
Cloaked from head-to-toe in your warmest attire, you press the ignition on your old jalopy and pray the engine turns over. Next up, looms an hour-long drive on one of Calgary’s many congested traffic arteries.
Braving whiteout conditions, slick patches of ice and idiotic drivers, you finally pull into one of the parking lots at Mount Royal University. Sure, you may be one of the lucky ones that managed to snag a parking pass before they sold out in a record four days back in July, however, this does not necessarily guarantee you a parking space.

After three laps around campus (frightening a few fellow students as you lurk behind them hoping they will free up a coveted spot), you give up and park on the campus lawn, in one of the many surrounding communities, or possibly even smack dab in the middle of the road.

One late term paper and a tedious two-hour lecture later, you return to find a freshly written parking ticket for $45 on your dashboard.

This aggravating scenario and many others have become all to familiar for MRU students like Michael Davis.

Last year, Davis’ pass was designated for the S10 parking lot located across the street from campus in the Currie Barracks.

“That was a complete joke,” recalls the Policy Studies student, now heading into his second year at Mount Royal. “I had a class that started later on and you would show up and end up circling the parking lot for 45 minutes, you wouldn’t get a parking spot and then end up paying $8 or whatever in the visitors’ lot.
“I went and talked with the parking people at Mount Royal and they were just totally indifferent to the entire problem and I’m going ‘Why are we spending all this money to basically be denied our education because you can’t get us the resources we need.’ ”

In response to demand, the college adopted a new “free-for-all” parking system over the summer that provides students, faculty and staff the opportunity to purchase passes for an open or gated lot and eventually a pass for the parkade once the $45-million project is completed. The university’s manager of parking & transporation services, Stefan Durston, told the The Reflector in May that the new system attempts to cope with V1 and S7 lots being closed this year during construction of the parkade and also help provide revenue for the 1,200-stall structure. The college also allotted 1,500 fewer passes for sale compared to 2008’s fall semester and raised the general pass price by $75 to $180 per semester.

Even though Davis was proactive and managed to acquire an open lot pass just hours after they went on sale July 2, he isn’t exactly thrilled with the prospects of parking on campus this semester.
“I guarantee you I will still be forking out at least once a week for extra parking and I am budgeting for it because I know it’s the only way I am going to be able to manage my life against school,” Davis, who also attends classes at the University of Calgary and works at a part-time job, said.

So what are the alternatives for Mount Royal students like Davis? Do we simply have to grin and bare the situation or is more being done to alleviate the problem? Well, decide for yourself:

Transit

If you are unwilling to duke it out for parking, can’t afford a vehicle, or strongly believe in the ever-increasing voice of support for sustainable transportation at MRU, riding Calgary Transit to and from campus would seem like an obvious alternative. Unfortunately, opting to take the bus can often leave the average MRU commuter with just as many headaches as those who drive.

Rob Jones, VP external for the Students’ Association at Mount Royal, has spent countless hours over the past four years enduring long bus commutes from areas like Brentwood and the downtown core, a process he describes as a “nightmare.”

Jones explains, “It’s an issue if the bus is two minutes early and you miss it, you then miss all the connector buses and could be an hour late for class.”

Jones said the SA believes a critical component to easing MRU’s transportation crunch lies in appealing to Calgary alderman for an increase in bus routes and frequency to the college.

“We have this soaring need for increased public access to our campus and effectively we are looking at ways to help students — give them resources — that would help them contact their alderman in an effective way regarding this issue,” he said.

When the U-Pass, a mandatory $103 per semester fee for all full-time students that grants them unlimited access to Calgary Transit, was transferred from the SA into the hands of the college last year the student body lost a great deal of bargaining power with Calgary Transit, Jones says.

“We essentially need to look at more political avenues,” he explained. “Ultimately come January if nothing’s done there will be a need to amplify the student voice. Sustainable transportation is a strategy identified by the city in their strategic documents and if Mount Royal is not able to increase public transit access it goes against their priorities.”

While the SA believes rallying students is the answer, Neil McKendrick, the manager of transit planning for Calgary Transit, is quick to offer a reality check on the matter.

“We don’t have any transit service changes planned for Mount Royal (University) at this time for the next year. In fact, even in 2010 we don’t have any money for adding transit service,” McKendrick said. “We have done our thorough review of transit service to Mount Royal and you have got a bag of it.”

According to the statistics provided by Calgary Transit, a total of 465 buses, travelling on seven different routes, enter and leave MRU campus each day. Each of those buses carry an average of 23 people who are either getting on or off at the university for a total of more than 10,500 commuter trips each day.

“We agree that at certain times of the day — just like every other route, and the C-Train is no different — some of those are a little crowded,” McKendrick said, noting that Calgary Transit also operates two direct shuttle buses to campus that travel through a number of C-Train stations in the far north and south reaches of the city during peak travel times.

While Jones agrees the shuttles are a step in the right direction, he says the new $3 fee imposed by the City to park-and-ride at all C-Train stations adds another deterrent to students considering transit as their mode of transportation.

“I personally believe students would definitely benefit from a reduced payment,” Jones said. “Unfortunately within the political environment at city council they decided that was something they didn’t want to approve.”

Again, according to McKendrick, proposing a break for students on the park-and-ride fees may be wishful thinking.

“We could discount anything, we still have to generate $6-million worth of revenue to pay for all the things that we were asked to do in terms of providing safer, cleaner, better maintained facilities. Somebody’s going to have to pay.”

Jones said much of the SA’s criticism of current transit system stems from what he sees as a critical misstep by the City when MRU was left out of the planning for the western leg of the C-Train, with council instead opting for a route that runs along Bow Trail and 17th Ave. S.W. Calgary Transit does plan to run a rapid transit service from the Westbrook Mall station — offering students an efficient seven-minute ride to campus — in late 2012 when the new C-Train leg is slated to begin operations.

The rapid transit service is really the only logistical option when it comes to enhancing Mount Royal’s service through the new LRT line, explains McKendrick.

“Mount Royal (University), located where it is in the corner of that portion of the city is a pretty tough place to serve when it comes to an LRT line that is supposed to serve the whole southwest,” he said. “High-density areas can’t all have a LRT line and don’t all necessarily need one. The Foothills Hospital, for example, doesn’t have an LRT and there are 20,000 people working there.”

Beyond that, McKendrick said Calgary Transit does have the flexibility to make minor adjustments to routes travelling to and from MRU once the fall semester begins and a greater understanding of rider density is gained.

Carpooling & Biking

While the debate over transit service at MRU is unlikely to stall anytime in the foreseeable future, the answer may not completely lie in abandoning personal vehicles altogether but simply using fewer of them, says Jones.

“We are also looking at ways to provide resources and facilitation for students that are interested in carpooling,” he says. “We would effectively try to create some kind of incentive for carpooling, biking . . . all of the other alternative means of transportation that will be a necessity to use this year.”

The SA has also begun researching and discussing solutions with student bodies at other campuses situated in limited space arrangements similar to that of MRU’s. It was through this research that the SA discovered a fast-growing carpool program created by two recent post-secondary graduates in the U.S. called Zimride.

The website service builds off systems created by Carpool.ca and eRideshare.com by adding social networking site Facebook to the equation, explains co-founder and chief operating officer John Zimmer, allowing students to develop a greater level of knowledge and trust of their fellow carpoolers before agreeing to share a ride.

“We saw the potential but not really anything that utilizes the technology and how students communicate,” Zimmer said. “We looked at technology — namely Facebook, which was sitting right in front of us — as a viable way to solve the problem. Facebook added the trust factor and also boosted our users significantly because it has become part of people’s routine.”

To date, more than 300,000 users have signed up for Zimride, searching for everything from a simple ride home for the weekend to a cross-country road trip. Zimmer said students seem far more willing to carpool with people who share similar interests, have mutual friends or, in some cases, attend the same class.
“We have had some people say they have met some of their best friends using our service,” he said.

Zimmer said that for the program to be successful at any particular campus, a critical mass of users must be developed quickly to ensure riders are finding common ground with one another. At Cornell — Zimmer’s alma mater and one of the campuses where Zimride is used most frequently — 3,000 users are signed up despite the institution’s relatively small graduate population of 13,000.

Zimmer noted that Mount Royal’s parking predicament is not exactly a unique problem.

“What we have seen at other campuses is that parking is a big issue almost everywhere and people would rather build new physics buildings than another parking lot,” he said. “Furthermore if there is more of an awareness around sustainable transportation, it enriches quality of life at a university and uses less resources.”

Last July, $60 million was granted by three levels of government to construct the “state-of-the-art” Mount Royal Conservatory of Music. The massive structure will be built on top of parking lot No. 7 — the college’s largest in terms of surface area. When questioned on the matter, MRU President Dave Marshall quickly pointed out that the conservatory will feature an underground parkade for use upon completion but did concede that during construction, which could begin as early as next spring, parking space in the lot will be lost.

“My message to everybody, even those that have parking passes, is find alternative ways to get to campus because this is not going to go away and to a certain degree I am not going to apologize for it,” Marshall said.

In an attempt to boost the number of people sharing rides to campus, the university hiked the number of parking stalls designated for carpoolers to 55 compared with 14 last year. The number of bike lockers and bike racks campus-wide was also increased and more stalls have been designated for short-term parking, encouraging students to drive to campus on occasion while using alternative means whenever possible, according to documents provided by MRU external relations.

If the Zimride program was adopted at Mount Royal — something currently being deliberated by the SA — it would become the first Canadian campus to officially sign on despite a number of ride postings already up on the site from individual Canadian users.
Using smaller vehicles to share rides is not the only idea being explored by the SA, explains Jones.
“The No. 1 problem we identified for students living in residence is the ‘grocery store problem,’ ” Jones said. “Based on that, we’re looking into having a school bus run at a set time from residence to the nearest grocery store to help students meet their most basic needs.”

Under the new parking system, Mount Royal students living in campus residence are no longer guaranteed a parking pass and the stalls located directly next to their dwellings have been opened to anyone with an open lot parking pass. No official plan for the school bus service from residence has been set in place.

While the aforementioned ride sharing programs are still in the planning phase, Jones noted that the SA will host a sustainable transportation day on Sept. 23 in Wyckham House where students can get their bikes tuned and gain more information about alternative methods of transportation.
“There’s an urgency when it comes to transportation,” he said, “and basically students are wondering what are their options, what are the solutions?”

Moving

Finally, If travelling to Mount Royal via transit, through some kind of ride share program or on bike has done little to curve your case of commuter blues, then what about by foot? No, not some daily four-hour walk from the city’s rural region, dodging erratic cars and possessed joggers along the way, but instead simply moving to within walking distance of campus.

While it is now likely too late to gain a spot in MRU residence for the fall semester (as of mid-August just 20 spots remained available), a number of students graduate before Christmas freeing up spots for the winter semester, according to residence services assistant manager Natasha Lopeke.

“Residence is one of those places where people make lifelong friendships and truly get a taste of life away from home,” she said in an e-mailed statement. “Studies show that students who live on campus are more successful and are more likely to complete their program.

“We believe that living on campus enhances the post-secondary experience and helps create a well-rounded student.”

Students living in residence are assisted by two full-time professional staff known as residence life co-ordinators and 30 resident advisers made up of students who have lived in residence previously for at least one year. Hot topic workshops and academic success community meetings are held frequently, says Lopeke, allowing students to meet peers and professors interested in similar fields of study.

Lopeke also admitted that a number of students have expressed concern about the new parking system and says her department plans to work with parking services to find positive solutions that benefit residence students.

In addition, the opportunities to live near MRU don’t simply end once residence is full according to David McIlveen, director of community development for Boardwalk — Canada’s largest rental landlord overseeing more than 31,000 units across the country, including a number in communities surrounding Mount Royal University.

“The rental market is always quite strong for landlords in the area near Mount Royal [University],” McIlveen said. “It is important for potential tenants to recognize that they should be prepared for a competitive market, but also know that there are rental units available right now that are affordable for students.”

Current monthly rates at Lakeview Apartments, Boardwalk’s closest rental property to MRU, start at $899 for single bedroom unit, $1,019 for a two-bedroom and $1,299 for a three-bedroom. McIlveen explained that full-time students with a letter verifying enrollment qualify for Boardwalk’s rental reduction agreement that sees student tenants pay at least $150 less per month. He said students hoping to rent a property for the first time should be prepared with references and be able to provide evidence of sustainable income.

“Proximity to MR(U) is the main draw for students, the fact they can find a well maintained Boardwalk unit in a professionally managed building at a discounted price is a huge bonus to students,” McIlveen said.

So there you have it. If the thought of one more argument over a parking spot or adding another $45 ticket to your already impressive collection is enough to make you cringe, then maybe an alternative method of getting to class is in order. No one method is perfect and you can be sure to still encounter a few headaches along the way. Furthermore, these options are not for everyone, just ask Davis, the Policy Studies student.

“With my lifestyle I need to be able to drive and park on campus,” he said. “I think Mount Royal really needs to seriously look at the way they’re getting students to class because it’s not adequate right now.”
Jones with the SA concluded by again encouraging students to make their voices heard.

“We could stop the construction and people could park in a big dirt mound, but that’s not going to help anyone . . . this issue is no one’s particular fault, it’s a shared problem for everyone on-campus and hopefully through constructive dialogue we will find the best possible solutions.”

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A sea of blue packed into Kenyon Court as Mount Royal reached an important milestone on the road towards becoming a full university.

Twenty-nine students, in the criminal justice, communications, arts, and business administration programs, received the first baccalaureate degrees Friday from the 99-year-old institution.

“It’s such a big day not only for the college but for the students because it commemorates being done school. It’s such an amazing feeling,” said Leslie Dovichak, a business admin grad who has called Mount Royal home for the past six years.Dovichak’s time at the college, which also saw her earn an applied degree in supply chain management, has “meant so much. Just being able to walk around the halls and being able to know everybody, all of the students and, in addition to that, the faculty has really helped me a great deal.”

Mount Royal President Dave Marshall, noticeably excited about the day’s festivities, told the university-level graduates “You hold special importance. They will be the first of many graduates to come.”

Marshall told the graduates the future will not necessarily be easy as they enter the workforce amid difficult economic times. The president himself graduated with his first degree in chemistry in the 1970s on the heels of a 40 per cent drop in the stock market and received his doctorate in the early 1980s during a worldwide economic collapse.

“As each of you graduate into the middle of this economic crisis, I — and many others like me — have done alright, despite some incredibly bad timing about entering the workforce,” he said.

Class of 2009 valedictorian Meghan Stalker, a graduate of Mount Royal’s Bachelor of Applied Ecotourism and Outdoor Leadership, highlighted the numerous people and opportunities that have helped her as a student at Mount Royal.

“I didn’t have much of an idea of where I was going in the program and was very new to most of the concepts taught in my first year,” she said. “What started to make a difference for me was a decision to start saying yes to opportunities that were thrown my way.”

“The message therefore is clear, do it . . . develop an appreciation for ceasing the moment.”

“There is more in us than we know. If we can be made to see it, perhaps, for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less,” Stalker added, borrowing a quote from influential German educator Kurt Hahn.

Meanwhile, Dovichak hopes her bachelor degree will continue to open doors for her in the future. She has already earned the coordinator of inventory position with the Vancouver Olympic Committee and hopes to possibly work with the London Organizing Committee for the 2012 Games.

“I thought it was a great oppurtunity . . . I only needed a few more classes to do it and thought what’s one more year after five!” she joked.

The 29 baccalaureate degree recipients and the other graduates in attendance join roughly 60,000 other alumni to have walked through Mount Royal’s halls over its near-century of existence.

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