Lake Erie Transit partnered with MCCC to bring free bus services to eligible students. During the 2024 fall semester students who struggled to get to campus due to lacking a secure form of transportation were given an opportunity to receive free bus service.
Though the official page on MCCC’s website for the Husky Shuttle states the service is for income-eligible students, Josh Myers, executive director of The Foundation, said there is no income test for it.
“There is no specific income means test for the Husky Shuttle,” Myers said in an email.
Currently, the City of Monroe and Frenchtown Charter Township are the only areas in Monroe County included in this program. The Husky Shuttle would pick students up from home, bringing them to and from campus.
This program is still very new. The intentions behind the early stages are to establish if students need more options for transportation to and from campus.
In the future, there may be consideration for expanding this service to more areas in the county. For now, the focus is on success and reaching students who would benefit from this program.
Students applying for this program were given the choice between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. for pick up times, with 3 p.m. as when students would ride the bus home.
In comparison, Lake Erie Transit has a bus route that stops at MCCC from 7:14 a.m. to 5:54 p.m. Monday through Friday, while the Husky Shuttle only advertised Monday and Wednesday.
As of right now, some students have the chance to be given monthly bus passes based on their needs and situation, allowing them to use the fixed routes without having to pay.
Myers stated in an email that Husky Shuttle has a possibility of expanding past just Mondays and Wednesdays, but it would take a significant amount of funding to do so. Once the program shows its success and how beneficial it can be to students, there will be room for such changes.
Right now, students are able to cancel their rides by contacting central dispatch at Lake Erie Transit. They were warned that missing two rides without notice would result in being dropped from the program completely.
The Husky Shuttle will be continuing into next semester for students who are currently enrolled in the program with the hope that future years will carry on this service. Whether or not this service will be able to continue into the following years depends on students.
“Our hope is that we can evidence significant need through ridership that will allow The Foundation and MCCC to seed additional funding to support an expanded service,” Myers said.
For the fall semester, 15 students had applied for this program, but several of those students didn’t attend MCCC.
Myers said applications for the remainder of this semester will be opening up within the next two weeks in light of how much space is available.
“We will be opening up in the next two weeks an opportunity for new students to enroll for the remainder of fall semester, and we will begin enrollment for winter in October,” Myers said. “We have ample space to enroll more students in Husky Shuttle.”
