Scrambling to get to class on time could potentially become a thing of the past at American River College.
The campus is currently constructing portable villages in the Stadium parking lot, which is located right across the bridge next to the parking garage, according to Giovani Ferarri, student senate director of legislative affairs. Because these new portable villages, which will contain classrooms, are so far from the rest of campus, many students are concerned about the issue of being able to get to class on time to or from the portable villages.
“[There are] a lot of hurdles because of the sheer size of the campus. There are a lot of hills,” says Alicia Szutowicz, associated student body president.
The 15 minutes allotted for getting from class to class is just not enough, she says. This is especially disadvantageous for those who have some form of disability or injury that restricts their mobility.
Szutowicz works at the Disability Services and Programs for Students, an organization that provides programs and services within educational institutions for students who have disabilities to ensure that they get equal access to educational resources. She and Ferarri are working on a project to gauge student need for transportation services, such as golf carts, across campus.
This project started as a result of a lawsuit that occurred at a community college in Los Angeles where a student, who also happened to be a veteran, got injured while trying to get across campus. This is why several groups on campus such as the student senate, DSPS and the PsyBeta Club are working together to research and create a proposal to take preventative measures so something like this doesn’t happen at ARC. If the proposal is accepted, and funding is secured, then the transportation service can be up and running as early as the fall of 2026.
Their goal is to provide on-campus transportation for two categories of students: those signed up for DSPS who have limited mobility, and non-DSPS students who are running late, have an injury or have a lot of items to carry.
“We’re going to work it out so that students who need it most get priority,” Ferrari said.
Currently, Ferrari is working on a survey that aims to garner a pulse of what the students’ needs are, which will help construct a solid argument to present to the board as well as figure out a budget for how much this project will cost. The student senate has already been awarded $7,500 in the form of a research scholarship to help conduct this preliminary investigation that will help the project be approved and started. Once the project gets approved, then the next step will be to figure out the timeline, the more intricate logistics and where to get the funding from. Szutowicz says that it’s up to the administration to decide where to make room for new projects in the budget.
Ferrari believes that if the proposal gets rejected, the most likely reason would be how expensive it is. There are also the potential issue that not enough students will respond to the survey. There are approximately 30,000 students at ARC, so about 1,000 students will have to fill out the survey in order for the results to be statistically significant.
While the students who will be filling out the survey now will most likely have already transferred by the time the new transportation system is up and running, it is still a way that current students can contribute to making ARC a more accessible campus for future generations of students.
Students can find the survey here.
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